FILE - Taylor Swift poses backstage at the MTV Video Music Awards, in a Sunday, Aug. 25, 2013 file photo at the Barclays Center in the Brooklyn borough of New York. A trespassing charge has been dismissed against a Maine man accused of showing up at singer Taylor Swift’s Rhode Island vacation home. The Westerly Sun reports that police decided to drop the charge after determining it would be difficult to prove that 55-year-old Joseph Bernatche, of Portland, Maine, was on Swift’s property when he handed her security guard a note telling Swift to call him. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
September 09, 2013 - 9:13 AM
SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. - A trespassing charge has been dismissed against a Maine man accused of showing up at Taylor Swift's Rhode Island vacation home.
The Westerly Sun (http://bit.ly/18OYq5q ) reports that police decided to drop the charge after determining it would be difficult to prove that 55-year-old Joseph Bernatche (ber-NATCH'-ee) of Portland, Maine, was on Swift's property when he handed her security guard a note telling the singer to call him.
Westerly police Lt. Phil Williams said it wasn't clear whether the guard had passed onto public property when he accepted the note.
Bernatche pleaded not guilty to the charge of wilful trespass after his July 27 arrest.
Judge Melanie Quirk in 4th Division District Court dismissed the charge on Friday.
News from © The Associated Press, 2013