A man has been released from the Sedgwick County Jail after spending 4½ years waiting for a trial in a sexual predator case.

Forty-five-year-old Todd Ellison was supposed to go to trial next week to determine whether he should be held for life as a sexual predator.

Instead, District Judge Ben Burgess released Ellison Friday, saying his right to a speedy trial had been violated.

Ellison completed a sentence for sexual crimes involving children from cases in 1996 and 1997. When he was about to be released in 2009, prosecutors filed a petition to argue that he might be determined to be a sexually violent predator.

Ellison fought the allegation since then, although he says the state also delayed hearings in the case.

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Associated Press information from: The Wichita Eagle