"Exclude" not working in gallery

All plugins updated involves template usage. When I click “Exclude” while managing the gallery, it does not exclude the image from the gallery shown on the homepage. The php responsible for displaying on the homepage is as follows:

<?php
		global $wpdb;
		 //get array of objects from wp-ngg_gallery table
		$featured = $wpdb->get_results("SELECT * FROM wp_ngg_gallery WHERE gid ='".$theGalleryID."' LIMIT 1");
		$featuredImgInfo = $wpdb->get_results("SELECT * FROM wp_ngg_pictures WHERE galleryid ='".$featured[0]->gid."' ORDER BY <code>sortorder</code> ASC");
		$featuredImgPath = $featured[0]->path;
	?>

I’m assuming there is a way to add syntax for exclude to the get_results function but I’m at a loss on how to do that. Please advise.

https://www.ads-software.com/extend/plugins/nextgen-gallery/