Natasha Vaughn-Holdrige is reporting for Columbia-Greene Media that Columbia County Judge Richard M. Koweek Dec. 10, dismissed four charges, including second-degree gang assault, against the five defendants accused of attacking Harold Handy III in July 2020. Koweek issued a decision and order that included the dismissal of four counts of the 12-count indictment handed up by a grand jury in October 2020 against Alex Rosenstrach, Kelly Rosenstrach, Bryan Haag, and Cory Gaylord, plus an additional count of second-degree gang assault against Alex Rosenstrach and Haag. In rendering the decision, Koweek wrote there was insufficient evidence to sustain the charges. Handy was allegedly assaulted in the early morning hours July 5, 2020, at the Kinderhook home of Alex Rosenstrach, then owner of ClubLife Gym in Valatie and his wife Kelly, a Deputy Columbia County Sheriff. Handy was hospitalized at Albany Medical Center after the Valatie Rescue Squad responded to a 911 call and treated him for 44 minutes at the residence. A grand jury indicted the defendants in connection to the assault 13 weeks after the assault occurred. In his order, Koweek cited testimony before the grand jury about Handy's physical condition on the night of the attack and his subsequent medical treatment, but no evidence "...about permanent impairment of a body organ or disfigurement or permanent scaring" was submitted. "Based upon the evidence supplied and the high burden imposed under Penal Law 10, the court is constrained to conclude that there is insufficient evidence to support counts one and two of this indictment,..." Counts eight, nine and 10 of the indictment charged Kelly Rosenstrach with three counts of official misconduct. Koweek dismissed counts nine and 10, which alleged that Kelly Rosenstrach accessed Columbia County Sheriff’s Office computer records to look at discovery requests in the case. “No superior from the sheriff’s office testified that the behavior of Kelly Rosenstrach, while employed, was administratively forbidden or unauthorized or otherwise illegal,” Koweek wrote. The office of Columbia County DA Paul Czajka could not be reached for comment. Pretrial hearings in the matter are now scheduled to begin April 4. Read the full story at HudsonValley360 [dot] com.