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.
