Michael Manzi

Manzi's 2015 mugshot

>
> "*Guys?! UGHHH! This is harri-bal! This is harri-bal!*"
> ―Mike's reaction to being exposed on television

**Michael "Mike" Manzi** is a suspected predator who was involved in the Fairfield, Connecticut sting. He would continue a trend of educators talking to and meeting minors the same age as pupils they taught, and is mostly well-known for his obsession with weed and pizza, his egg-shaped head, and his good samaritan excuse for contacting and meeting up with the decoy.

## Biography

At the time of the sting, 32-year-old Mike Manzi was a self employed tutor and had a love of pizza and smoking pot. Manzi contacted the decoy, asking such questions like "did you blaze?" and proclaiming to who he thought was a 13-year-old girl, "You're my soulmate". This quote was taken out of context by the show, however, as it was not meant as a romantic overture, rather as a response to the decoy eating the same thing as him during the time of the chat. He got suspicious at one point, however, and asked the decoy to send a custom pic. Eventually, his fears were quashed and he arrived at the sting house on a Sunday afternoon.

He went into the sting house and greeted the decoy. Immediately after the decoy herself acknowledging that it was "weird", he asked if he could "look around" and went straight to the curtain where Chris Hansen was waiting. Hansen came out from behind the curtain and started grilling Manzi. Hansen asked what Manzi was doing at the house with intent to meet a young teenager. Manzi explained away his actions by saying he was (ironically) concerned that she was talking to people that were a lot older than her and that he was just going to "search the house". Chris shot down Manzi's excuses with messages from his inappropriate chatlog, revealing that Manzi wanted to "blaze" with her and "whatever was going to happen was going to happen", although Manzi repeatedly denied this and claimed he was a good samaritan, trying to help the girl. He also dismissed having any marijuana on him, claiming that he only had cigarettes in his car. Eventually, Manzi apologized for his actions and Hansen revealed the sting operation, causing Manzi to ask Ron Knight to let him leave through the front door, knowing he'd be arrested if he went through the garage, telling the crew he "can't afford" to be arrested.

Manzi finally relented, calling the situation "harrible." He stuck to his guns when approached by law enforcement while at the same time remaining very distressed by and loud during his predicament. He kept pleading with the officers even when he was being handcuffed, which continued until one of the officers threatened to tase Manzi just to force him to his knees. Manzi complied and knelt down to be searched more calmly.

At his interrogation, he was visibly distressed, and tried to deny his intent with the thirteen year old girl. The questioning detective, due to a lack of overtly sexual material in the chat, tried to get Manzi to hang himself by trying to get him to admit his query about her ability to do a yoga move called “Downward Dog” was actually a coded inference to something sexual. Mike vehemently denied this. Although the detective eventually gave up trying to implicate Manzi in a sex crime, he did manage to at least use the reasoning that, sexually motivated or not, he could be putting a minor in danger with the chat and meeting up with them.

## Aftermath

Manzi was charged with Criminal Attempt to Commit Risk of Injury to a minor due to the intent to smoke marijuana with the child. He pleaded guilty and had a suspended sentence of 3 years and was placed on probation. He did not have to register as a sex offender. He later moved back in with his parents after being unable to find anymore tutor work, even being heckled in public spaces by people who recognised him from the show.

## 2020 Update

Manzi was caught on Reddit by observant fans of the show based on comments he was leaving on posts. The discussion Manzi had with Joey and one of the admins eventually led to a private Discord chat, which Manzi permettied Joey to record, discussing various things such as movies, Jeff Sokol, the sting itself, and his life and problems post-sting. Manzi claimed pieces of his chat log were missing from the copy that is publicly available, including evidence that dismisses any predatory implications, such as Manzi trying to buy edibles off of the decoy. He also requested a copy of the chat that fellow TCaP YouTuber Big Swarzarelli had and did a reading of, promising to do a full live interview on YouTube if Swarz took the video down and if Manzi could finally get his hands on the supposed uncut chat log. When the time came to do the interview as promised, Manzi ghosted Joey and disappeared.

## Trivia

* It is a question of debate whether or not Manzi really had any sexual intent with the decoy, since it doesn't show up even once in his chat beyond the supposed "downward dog" and "soulmate" comments. Hansen believes that Manzi is one of the more dangerous predators in the sense that he was smart enough to avoid sexual conversations to avoid being in serious trouble for his chat. While some fans agree, others believe Manzi was simply being inappropriate with his suggestions they smoke and hang out, but did not intend on having sex with an underage girl.
* Because his uncut interview was never released, rumors surfaced that Manzi was the nephew of Ron Knight, with the two becoming estranged following the sting. In a supposed section that wasn't aired, he directly referred to Knight as his uncle, asking Knight to let him go free. This is not true, however. The real reason Manzi's uncut interview has not been released is because Hansen's website was taken down before he had a chance to upload it.
* Manzi's shirt is commonly worn by graduates of MIT, despite him not attending this university.
* He can be seen in the background of Jesse Velez's Crime Watch Daily segment starting at 12:39.
* When Chris Hansen introduced himself to Manzi by saying "I'm Chris Hansen", Manzi replied "No, you're not" twice, apparently not recognising Chris until that point.
* Photographs of Manzi have surfaced both from his personal Facebook page (including pictures of him massively overweight as a teen) and on a felony dating site. They have not and **should not** be added to this page for privacy reasons.
	+ Photographs taken of Manzi at his current job were also posted to this wiki, but they classify as doxxing, so they will not be shared beyond their original posting on Reddit.