BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – A judge acquitted a former Illinois State University theater professor who was charged with official misconduct and battery after he grabbed and kissed a student before auditions at the school.

McLean County Judge Scott Drazewski cited testimony that 63-year-old Patrick O’Gara had kissed the male student at least 50 times over the course of a year without being told the behavior was bothersome.

“The charges make for good theater, but the state is required to prove the charges,” Drazewski said Tuesday as he cleared O’Gara of two counts of official misconduct and one count of battery.

O’Gara said outside court that he was “over the moon, after eight months of going to bed every night with a weight on my shoulder that I didn’t feel was justified.”

Drazewski said O’Gara may have violated a university directive warning him about unsolicited physical contact with male students, but said the matter should not have ended up in court.

ISU officials say O’Gara was told to stop the behavior after senior Jay Worthington filed a complaint in the spring of 2006. Worthington testified that he filed two complaints against O’Gara with the university, but said he had been kissed many times before lodging both complaints.

“I am a very expressive, emotional man,” O’Gara said later.