Chester County judge drops charges against trooper in horse case
WEST CHESTER — A Common Pleas Court judge has granted the request of the Chester County District Attorney’s Office to formally dismiss charges of animal cruelty leveled against a state trooper after he drove his patrol vehicle into a horse that was loose on a roadway before another trooper ultimately euthanized the horse.
The request for dismissal, called a “nolle pros” in legal terms, was accompanied by a letter by District Attorney Chris de Barrena-Sarobe laying out the facts of the case and the reasoning behind his decision to drop the charges against the trooper, Cpl. Michael Perillo.
“This is an irregular case that presents complex legal issues,” said de Barrena-Sarobe in his out-of-the-ordinary letter, which was also signed by the prosecutor handling Perillo’s case, Deputy District Attorney Kate Wright.
“In short, while there is ample probable cause to support the initial charging decision, after a review of the applicable defense at trial, I do not believe that the Commonwealth can meet its burden of proving this offense beyond a reasonable doubt.”
De Barrena-Sarobe said that he understood that at trial, Perillo’s attorney intended to argue that the horse “had to be hit by his car to prevent a potentially serious car accident.
“Because the law requires all individuals, including police officers, to value to lives of humans over animals, I believe that the necessity defense is valid and would be successful at trial,” de Barrena-Sarobe said in the four-page letter, dated June 4.
The judge presiding over the case, Bret Binder, signed the “noll pros” request on Tuesday, without comment.
Perillo’s attorney, Williams Davis of Media, Delaware County, expressed gratitude for de Barrena-Sarobe’s action.
“We always felt it was an unfair prosecution,” Davis said in a telephone interview Wednesday. “If my client had not taken action, things could have turned deadly. I believe this was the right decision, and we are happy that the new DA made what we believe was the right decision.
“He was trying to protect other motorists,” Davis said of his client.
Perillo, 55, of Bucks County, who at the time was a 15-year-veteran state trooper assigned to the Avondale barracks in southern Chester County, was charged in July 2022, seven months after the incident. He was suspended without pay and has been awaiting trial since while free on bail.
According to de Barrena-Sarobe’s letter and news reports at the time of the arrest, the incident occurred in the night hours of Dec. 28, 2021, on Route 1 in the area of that highway’s intersection with Route 10 in Lower Oxford, north of Oxford borough.
The criminal complaint filed by the Pennsylvania State Police Internal Affairs Division alleges Perillo responded to assist at an incident involving the loose horse on the roadway. Upon arrival, Perillo drove a patrol vehicle into the horse multiple times, causing it to fall.
Using the vehicle, Perillo pinned the horse to the pavement, where it was then euthanized by another state trooper.
Perillo was charged with two counts of aggravated cruelty to animals, both graded as a felony of the third degree and one count of cruelty to animals, a misdemeanor of the second degree.
In his recounting of the events, de Barrena-Sarobe noted that he had personally viewed dash cam footage of the incident, frame-by-frame, and had visited the scene. He also spoke with other attorneys in his office and learned about how to approach horses.
Prior to Perillo’s involvement, the horse — whose owner has never been identified publicly — had caused a single-car accident on Route 1 causing heavy damage to the left front of the Subaru wagon. The motorist driving the car, a woman, was not injured but the car’s airbag was deployed.
Two troopers arrived before Perillo and attempted, unsuccessfully, to secure the horse. Perillo, a supervising trooper, instructed the troopers on the scene to prevent any further accidents, “even if that meant the horse was killed,” de Barrena-Sarobe wrote.
The two troopers struggled to contain the horse, with one, who had experience with horses, trying to make a lasso out of a set of jumper cables to rope in the horse. When Perillo arrived, the horse was still loose and traveling the wrong way up an on-ramp to Route 1 towards Route 10.
Perillo then tried to use his patrol car to trap the horse on the road, tapping it with the front of his car. “In hindsight, this was unwise,” the DA said. The horse turned around and went back towards Route 1.
One of the two other troopers, who were not identified in de Barrena-Sarobe’s account, then fired five shots into the horse’s midsection, but the horse continued to run. Perillo tried three times to pin the horse against a rail, all unsuccessful and then rammed it from behind. It fell but got up and continued moving until Perillo was able to drive his car on top of the horse when it was knocked to the ground.
The horse was killed by a gunshot to its head.
De Barrena-Sarobe explained in his letter that a “necessity defense” must show that there was imminent harm to the public, that a defendant was hoping to avoid greater harm, and that there was no viable legal alternative to his or her actions.
“Here, the harm sought to be avoided was injury or death to anyone driving on Route 1,” de Barrena-Sarobe wrote. “The harm caused was pain and suffering to the horse with his patrol car.”
The D.A. did not shy away from criticizing the actions by the troopers that night, however.
“Watching Trooper Perillo strike the horse repeatedly with his patrol car is deeply disturbing,” he told the judge. “Many of the decisions made by the troopers that night worked to scare the horse further or direct it in the wrong direction, enhancing the potential danger to drivers on the road.
“But criminal law is not about hindsight,” he said. Perillo could not “hit pause” to consider all his alternatives. “Not does the law expect our law enforcement officers to respond to animals loose on a roadway with the knowledge and skill or. trained farmer.”
He said he intended to speak with the leadership at the Avondale barracks about how troopers, “do not find themselves in this situation again.”
That last action will likely satisfy equestrians in the area, who have been following Perillo’s case closely, even if the dismissal of the charges does not.
Stephanie Lawson, the editor and publisher of East Coast Equestrian, a monthly publication for horse owners based in Lancaster County, expressed some surprise at the decision to drop the case. “What that guy did to that horse was just horrible,” she said in a phone interview Wednesday.
“If he was trying to do the right thing, but was going about it in the wrong way, who am I to say?” Lawson said. “But these things do happen. Horses do get loose. I hope the state police will take the opportunity to have their staff be involved with large animal training so that when this happens again there will be a much happier ending.”
Davis said Perillo will now take steps to be reinstated to his position in the state police. “He’s been in limbo since this happened,” he said. “He’d like to get back to work.”
To contact staff writer Michael P. Rellahan call 610-696-1544.
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