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Article updated: 1/7/2013 2:13 PM

Bennie Starks a free man after remaining charge is dropped

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Bennie Starks, now 52, talks to reporters after the aggravated battery charge against him was dropped Monday in Lake County Court. It was the last remaining charge from a 1986 rape Starks was wrongfully convicted of and for which he spent 20 years in prison.

Lee Filas | Staff Photographer

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Bennie Starks is a completely free man after the remaining aggravated battery charge against him was dropped Monday during a hearing in front of Lake County Judge John Philips. "It's, like, a huge relief," the 52-year-old Starks said after the hearing. Starks had been wrongfully convicted of raping a woman in 1986, but the charge was not dropped until now.

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