Man who shot Oak Orchard dog found not guilty

A Dover man accused of shooting a dog while in Oak Orchard in 2021 was found not guilty on all charges Oct. 10 by a Sussex County Superior Court jury.

Herbert Manley, 59, hugged his attorney Scott Wilson after the decision was announced, and some of his supporters openly cried for joy.

Manley did not comment following the jury decision, but Wilson was grateful for the outcome.

“I don’t think the case should’ve ever been brought,” he said. “There was a lot of media attention, and there were a lot of false narratives put forth.”

Manley was charged with three felonies – cruelty or unnecessarily killing an animal, first-degree reckless endangering, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. Superior Court Judge Mark Conner allowed the jury to consider a lesser misdemeanor charge for animal cruelty and a misdemeanor charge of second-degree reckless endangering.

Taking the stand in his own defense Oct. 10, Manley told the jury that the dog was running loose and was threatening him and his fiancee as they tried to walk down an Oak Orchard street to the water. After running at them twice, Manley said, the Labrador retriever lunged at him a third time with teeth bared when he shot the dog with his handgun.

“As soon as I saw the dog the first time, I was concerned and fearful,” said Manley, a retired Secret Service officer with decades of weapon training. “I didn’t want to kill him, so I hit him, boom.” 

Manley’s fiancee, Arlette Ballenger, had testified that the dog was foaming at the mouth.

During testimony on the first day of the two-day trial, the dog’s owner and several neighbors said the dog, Tank, was just a playful puppy who would never hurt anyone.

Karen Sekcienski, Tank’s owner, broke down while on the stand, telling a heartbreaking account of seeing Tank with blood coming from his mouth after he had been shot.

“I couldn’t understand why my dog was shot,” she said. When she heard that Tank was aggressive toward Manley and his fiancee, Sekcienski said, “That really bothered me because that would have been so against his personality.”

Sekcienski and her husband immediately drove Tank to an animal hospital in Salisbury, Md., where the vet said the dog was stable but had damage to his tongue, upper palate into the nasal cavity, and was missing teeth. The vet recommended the couple take Tank to a dental surgeon in Annapolis, Md., or Philadelphia, Pa., Sekcienski said, but the vet could not say whether surgery would fix him. Sekcienski said she made the decision to euthanize her dog because she could not bear driving to an unfamiliar area with her pet who was in clear distress.

“It was a bullet that did all the damage, but I had to make a decision to put my dog down,” she said.

Tank’s owners have filed a $15,000 civil suit against Manley, said Scott Wilson, Manley’s attorney.