A state appellate court has upheld the conviction of a Somerset County man for punching a dog in Manville and his 180-day sentence in the county jail.
Robert J. Hartobey, 47, was found guilty of animal cruelty in May 2023 by a Superior Court jury in connection with a May 2020 incident in Manville.
But the court overturned part of the sentence handed down by Superior Court Judge Jonathan Romankow that placed various conditions on Hartobey’s Parole Supervision for Life that he had been given in 2010 for an aggravated sexual assault charge on a 5-year-old girl in Edison in 2006.
According to court papers, a Manville woman was sitting in her living room at about 10 p.m. May 8, 2020 when she heard “a loud thud” against her house followed by another thud 10 seconds later.
She went outside and saw a man, later identified Hartobey, kicking at what she first thought was a bookbag until she heard whimpering and realized it was her dog, Nessa.
After she yelled at Hartobey “to get the hell off that dog,” he responded that she should get “her fat … back in the house,” according to trial testimony.
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She then went back inside the house and called 911. Two Manville police officers, Michael Zangrillo and David Somonski, came to the house and saw Hartobey striking the dog “with a closed fist” on top of the head. They also saw Hartobey pulling on the dog’s leash “to force the dog to raise her head,” according to trial testimony.
The officers saw Hartobey strike the dog twice but stopped him as he was trying a third time.
The officers described Hartobey as intoxicated, talking with slurred speech, staggering and having alcohol on his breath, according to trial testimony.
The dog appeared scared, the officers said, and was whimpering, shaking and cowering with flesh blood on top of her head.
They brought Nessa to police headquarters where, still frightened, she hid under a vehicle in the sally port. An animal control officer came, lured her with treats and took her to the shelter.
Nessa yelped as if she was in pain when the animal control officer picked her up, court papers say.
After the two-day trial, Hartobey was found guilty of fourth-degree animal cruelty.
Hartobey appealed his conviction, arguing that the judge did not define the cruelty charge for the jury, through the judge followed the model jury charge for the offense.
The appellate court rejected that argument.
Hartobey also argued there was “insufficient” evidence for a conviction. The appellate court also rejected that argument, saying “a reasonable jury could have found (Hartobey) guilty of animal cruelty” after hearing the testimony.
Besides the 180-day jail sentence, which Hartobey did not appeal, Romankow placed three conditions on Hartobey’s Parole for Life conditions – a prohibition on contact with Nessa, a prohibition on owning other animals in the future, and anger management counseling.
Hartobey argued that those conditions had no basis in law and were unrelated to a crime committed more than a decade previously. He contended that a judge may not impose parole conditions because it is a power reserved to the state Parole Board.
The appellate court agreed that the judge did not have the authority to set parole conditions.
Hartobey was convicted before a new law was passed in 2023 allowing a judge to ban a person found guilty of animal cruelty from having a pet.
Email: mdeak@mycentraljersey.com
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