ROSENDALE -- A harassment charge against Rep. Maurice Hinchey has been dismissed.

Paul Lendvay, chairman of the Catskill Regional Friends of the National Rifle Association, claimed Hinchey smacked him on the head after he criticized the Democratic congressman's politics and told him to put down a gun he was examining at a street fair in Rosendale on July 19. He filed a second-degree harassment complaint against Hinchey a few weeks later.

Hinchey pleaded not guilty to the charge in September in Rosendale, about 100 miles north of New York City. Judge Robert Vosper Jr. dismissed the charge Thursday, saying Hinchey's actions didn't rise to the level of a crime.

Hinchey was elected to a ninth term in the House last week.