DENVER (AP) _ Vice President Cheney is off the hook. A judge in Denver says Cheney won't have to testify in a lawsuit
brought by a man who claims he was wrongfully arrested for
criticizing the war in Iraq.

Steve Howards says he spotted Cheney shaking hands and posing
for pictures at a mall in Beaver Creek, Colorado, two years ago and
went up to him and said, ``Your policies in Iraq are disgusting.''

Howards contends a Secret service agent handcuffed him, took him
to jail and asked deputies to charge him with assault. Instead, he
was charged with harassment and that charge was later thrown out.

Howards' lawyer says only the vice president can sort out
differing accounts of the incident. But the judge says Howards'
lawyer hasn't shown there's no other source for the information,
something necessary in order to have a high-ranking official
testify.