yesterday after two charges he assaulted members of the Kennedy dynasty were dropped.

Gould had been accused of assaulting Michael Kennedy's estranged wife, Victoria, and her sister-in-law Rory Kennedy.

The allegations were dropped when he appeared in a court in Norfolk, Massachusetts, yesterday. He had denied them both.

"I was very happy with the way things went today and when all the facts come out I am sure I will be totally vindicated,'' he told The Royal Gazette last night.

Gould, 41, who now reports for the New York-based tabloid The Star Magazine, faces a string of other charges. He denies them all.

The charges relate to an incident in which he allegedly tried to force Victoria Kennedy to pull off a road for a photograph after claims her husband, son of slain Sen. Robert Kennedy, had an affair with the family's baby sitter.

Mrs. Kennedy's three children were in the back of the vehicle and her sister-in-law Rory Kennedy was also with her.

Police said Gould and a passenger began pursuing Mrs. Kennedy's car and at one stage she reportedly stopped to seek help from two landscapers.

Gould's car bumped one of the men, who rolled onto the car's hood, and the other man jumped out of the way, Police claimed.

At yesterday's court hearing, Gould also faced an accusation of driving to endanger and one of assault and battery against a landscaper.

In addition, he faced two further assault allegation against landscapers.

Gould, an Englishman who worked for The Royal Gazette in the 1980s, believed no date had been fixed for a trial.

Last Wednesday he was arraigned in Hingham and pleaded not guilty to several other charges relating to the same incident, including assault against members of the Kennedy family, speeding and failing to stop.

A hearing on these allegations was fixed for June 11.