'Real Housewives NJ' Danielle Staub's ex: She was cocaine addict, paid escort

Last week, Zap2it presented "Real Housewives of New Jersey's" Danielle Staub a $5 million challenge from ex-husband Kevin Maher. Staub's ex, subject of the book "Cop Without a Badge" that resurfaced on Season 1 of the show, passed a lie detector test and challenged her to do the same.

If Staub passes, he says he would drop his $5 million lawsuit, which charges the Bravo reality star with defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress for statements she allegedly made about him in an interview for People Magazine. At this time, Staub hasn't accepted his challenge and her attorney has no comment.

Nevertheless, Maher wants to make sure that everyone knows the truth and wants to dispel further lies he claims Staub has told around her 1986 arrest on eight charges including extortion, cocaine possession and narcotics conspiracy.

Staub maintained in the People article from June 2009 that she was arrested as an accessory, yet TheSmokingGun.com released court documents clearly showing that she was directly charged for the crimes.

"Danielle Staub was more culpable in that crime than anybody else," Maher tells Zap2it. "She did everything. She pistol-whipped that victim two times."

The victim testified that Staub, then known as Beverly Ann Merrill, whipped him with a handgun until his "head cracked open" and he was "covered with blood."

Additionally, the court papers show that Staub personally called the victim's father for ransom money in exchange for not injuring or killing his son.

Staub has also claimed that she has never done cocaine and had only used marijuana, yet Maher says he knows that's not true.

"She was just as addicted to [cocaine] as I was back in the eighties," says Maher, who freely admits he wasn't an angel himself back then.

Additionally, the court ordered her to take part in a drug rehab facility, which makes Maher even more suspicious of her claim in the People article and elsewhere that she has never done cocaine.

"There is no such thing as a drug program for marijuana," Maher says. "I've worked for the D.E.A. for six years. I have never heard of anyone go through a twelve-step program for marijuana."

Maher points out that after she served the term, the director of the rehab program wrote a letter to the judge saying that considering the severity of her drug history, it was recommended "that her mandate for drug aftercare be continued."

Finally, Staub claims she was never a "prostitution whore" as her costar Teresa Giudice screamed at her as she flipped a table in the series finale on Bravo. Maher says she was a paid escort when he knew her and witnesses testified in court that she was, as well.

"I don't know how she could expect to go on a reality show," says Maher. "And not have her past brought out -- especially one as colorful as Danielle Staub's."

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Photo: "Real Housewives of New Jersey's" Danielle Staub, A.K.A. Beverly Merrill, in a mugshot taken in 1986 after her arrest. Credit: Kevin Maher