CHRISTIANSBURG -- After finding Michael Scott Russell guilty Wednesday of misdemeanor petit larceny in the 2006 theft of a Hokie Bird statue, a judge decided to drop the charge altogether.

Circuit Court Judge Ray Grubbs convicted Russell, 22, of petit larceny after a brief hearing Wednesday morning in Montgomery County Circuit Court.

Russell had been charged with grand larceny, a felony, in the theft of the bird called "Motion Technology for Sea, Land, Air and Space." But the judge reduced it to the misdemeanor charge after hearing that Russell hasn't been in any trouble since the theft in December 2006.

He reduced it even further later, completely dismissing the charge and leaving Russell with a clean record.

Russell and Matthew Alan Hanson were originally charged with grand larceny and destruction of property after someone reported seeing two men break the fiberglass statue off its base and carry it into an apartment early the morning of Dec. 3, 2006. The statue stood in front of Moog Components Group on North Main Street in Blacksburg. Hanson and Russell were Virginia Tech students at the time.

The destruction charge against Russell was dropped after Hanson testified that he was the one who jumped on the bird, accidentally breaking it off its base.

At hearings last year, Grubbs took the remaining charges against Russell and Hanson under advisement for a year.

At a May hearing, he elected to keep the charge against Hanson under advisement for a second year, until May 2009.

Grubbs' decision to dismiss the charge against Russell is likely good news to Hanson and the nine other men currently facing charges of vandalizing one of the statues, which were placed around the town in February 2006 and sold as a fundraiser for the Blacksburg Partnership. The hand-painted birds are valued at at least $7,500 each.

Charges of destruction of property are still pending against nine men who were University of Virginia students when they admittedly took "Farmer Hokie" from its spot in front of the town's municipal building in March 2007. The statue was later stolen back, though by whom it remains unclear.

The charges against the nine men were also taken under advisement. They are due back in court in January.

Four of the birds -- "All Roads Lead to Blacksburg," "Bloom N' the Burg," "Everything is Coming up Roses" and "Mondrian Hokie Bird" -- will be up for auction on eBay from Sunday through Sept. 14. The partnership plans to split the proceeds with the Virginia Tech Alumni Association.