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A Vermont woman charged with cruelty to animals after she stared at a police dog "in a taunting/harassing manner" is free to make faces at any animal that crosses her path. The county prosecutor dropped the charges after finding a big hole in his case: The alleged victim was unavailable to tell the court how the staring made him feel.

The prosecutor watched a video of the incident and concluded that the state trooper who made the arrest was dealing with a "very intoxicated" person but not with actions that amounted to cruelty, the Rutland Herald reports. The public defender missed a chance to make a federal case out of a staring contest: "It's constitutional expression," she told the AP. (Read more crime stories.)