Since we caught up with him last, not a whole lot has changed for Michael Manos, the aspiring nightlife starlet and entertainer who threw extravagant parties back in those halcyon days of Bella and Billy Zane in 2009. Then, not a whole changes after three more months at Lew Sterrett.
Manos, you'll recall from our cover story a year ago, made a name for himself in Uptown nightlife in Dallas under the assumed named "Mordan Stefanov," in the last of a few stops on his run from parole in New York.
Awaiting trial on credit card and theft charges in Dallas, Manos stayed busy with complaints to the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, alleging Judge Susan Hawk, a Dallas County prosecutor, Dallas police and a Dallas Morning News reporter were all in on a conspiracy to keep him locked up. The prosecution, meanwhile, beefed up its case by recalling the violent kidnapping that landed Manos in a New York prison in the first place.
Yesterday, though, Manos cut a deal with prosecutors to avoid sitting around in jail through a lengthy trial. Says his lawyer Charlie Humphries over the phone today, Manos "wasn't happy, but he could live with it."
For credit card fraud and theft, he'll get a pair of 18-month state jail sentences, Humphries says, but since he's already been locked up since January 2010, Manos could be a free man by no later than late next month.
Humphries agrees Manos is "quite a character," and "a pleasure to work with," even if he often tried to take the lawyering into his own hands.
I'm still waiting for confirmation from Dallas County prosecutor Rita Granado; Jamille Bradfield, spokesperson for the district attorney's office, says she's trying to reach her. But Humphries tells Unfair Park that in addition to the state jail felonies, Manos will get six months' probation for charges that he cheated the Ashton out of a few months in a penthouse apartment. In addition, Manos agrees to pay $56,000 in restitution, $10,000 of it up front.
"Michael Manos maintains his innocence on all charges," Humphries says. "He was just trying to help people."
At every turn, after burning bridges in yet another city and changing his name one more time, Manos has maintained he just wants to leave his past behind. After serving a year for parole jumping in New York, and his jail time for the charges in Dallas, he may finally be able to -- so long as no more complaints resurface from his past.
