A Saline County judge has dropped several charges filed against a former cadet leader accused of sexually assaulting a younger cadet at an embattled Kansas military school.

Judge Patrick Thompson made the decision Friday after a preliminary hearing for 18-year-old David James Burke, of McLean, Va. Burke had been charged with seven counts of aggravated sexual battery and one count of attempted aggravated criminal sodomy. But The Salina Journal reports that Thompson found there was only enough evidence to try him on three of the aggravated sexual battery counts.

The case against Burke stems from incidents alleged to have occurred last October at St. John’s Military School in Salina.

A lawyer for Burke has said his client denies anything happened in the way of a felony.