TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - A central New Jersey dog trainer accused of severely beating a canine that died while in his care has pleaded guilty to animal cruelty charges.
The Times of Trenton (https://bit.ly/1tKsGe8) reports that Michael Rosenberg’s plea deal with Mercer County prosecutors calls for him to receive a five-year prison term when he’s sentenced Aug. 5. It will run concurrently with a four-year sentence he received in 2011 for child endangerment charges that stemmed from sexual activity with a juvenile.
Rosenberg’s attorney told the newspaper that the latter sentence had been suspended, but was reinstated after the 32-year-old Princeton resident violated probation by failing a drug test and attempting to cheat on another
The animal cruelty charges stem from the 2012 death of Shyanne, a 3-year old German-shepherd mix owned by one of Rosenberg’s clients.
Rosenberg was accused of dragging the dog along a road in Princeton and hitting it with a crop whip. Authorities also said he slammed the dog into the ground and poked its ribs, and also abused his own dogs.
Shyanne’s owner, Tracy Stanton, said she can now move forward with her life.
“I’m happy that people, the court and everybody who has supported this have sent a message that this type of behavior will not be tolerated,” Stanton told the newspaper. “When this happened there was nothing else he could have taken from me that could have hurt me more. That dog was my life. She was my baby.”
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Information from: The (Trenton, N.J.) Times, https://www.nj.com/times
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