By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Tracy Stanton came face-to-face Monday with the man accused of killing her dog last year in Princeton.
”Horrible” is how the Lawrenceville woman described how she felt seeing Michael G. Rosenberg again after Mr. Rosenberg’s latest court appearance in Trenton on a third-degree animal cruelty charge. It was less than a year ago that Ms. Stanton had entrusted her shepherd mix Shyanne, into the care of Mr. Rosenberg, a convicted Megan’s law offender who allegedly had passed himself off as a dog trainer.
She sat in the courtroom of state Superior Court Judge Mark J. Fleming for a brief status conference on a case that lawyers said likely will go to trial in the fall.
Mr. Rosenberg, a former Princeton resident who has relocated to Lawrenceville, has shown no interest in taking a plea bargain from the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office. Due back in court again June 3, he has pleaded not guilty.
Mr. Rosenberg declined to comment outside of court. Defense lawyer James R. Wronko, outside the courtroom, said the case “realistically” would go to trial in the fall.
Mr. Rosenberg, 31, allegedly beat Shyanne in August. A necropsy, the term used to describe an autopsy on an animal, determined that she had suffered four broken ribs, a punctured lung and hypothermia, authorities have said. In court, deputy first Assistant Mercer County Prosecutor Doris M. Galuchie told the judge that the veterinarian who performed the procedure would be a witness at the trial.
On Feb.12, a Mercer County grand jury handed up a one-count indictment charging Mr. Rosenberg with third-degree animal cruelty. The offense, the most serious that authorities could bring, carries up to five years in state prison.
But Mr. Rosenberg’s legal troubles run deeper than that. If convicted, he would face more prison time on a four-year suspended sentence that he received for a prior conviction, Ms. Galuchie said.
In that case, Mr. Rosenberg had had a sexual relationship in Princeton Borough from 2009 to 2010 with a girl starting when she was 14, according to authorities. In July 2011, he pleaded guilty to third-degree child endangerment and received a suspended sentence, authorities have said.
A conviction in this case would constitute a violation of his suspended sentence, Ms. Galuchie said. She said that would mean any penalty he received would run consecutive — meaning back to back — to any prison time he would have to serve on the child endangerment offense.
He is a Megan’s Law offender. Prior to moving to Lawrenceville, he lived on Birch Avenue, according to the state sex offender registry.
Princeton animal control officer Mark Johnson also attended Monday’s court appearance. Afterward, he expressed concern that other animal cruelty cases he brought against Mr. Rosenberg — involving three dogs — including two of Mr. Rosenberg’s — are not being heard.
”Where are they?” he asked about the other charges.
