CHAPEL HILL -- A judge dismissed trespassing charges Monday against six college students who had been arrested during an anti-war protest at a congressman's local office.

The students -- five from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and one from North Carolina State University -- hugged their two pro bono attorneys in the courtroom after the hearing.

District Court Judge Alonzo Coleman dismissed the charges after being told that Rep. David Price, D-N.C., had asked the district attorney's office to drop the case.

"I regret the case progressed to this point," Price said in a statement about the sit-in the group of students staged at his Chapel Hill office over funding for the Iraq war.

The students were arrested in February after refusing to leave Price's office. They had demanded a meeting with Price, who was in Washington, D.C., at the time.

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