3:05 p.m. - FARGO, N.D. (AP) -- A man serving a 20-year prison sentence for rape is about to be set free after his accuser recanted his story.

Reinaldo Vasquez, 52, was sentenced in January 1998. A Cass County jury convicted him almost solely on the accuser's testimony because the state had no physical evidence, Assistant State's Attorney Mark Boening said.

The man who testified that Vasquez raped him at knifepoint recanted his story Monday.

Boening, the prosecutor who tried Vasquez, said he believes the 35-year-old accuser changed his story because he is embarrassed to be known as a rape victim.

East Central District Judge Steven Marquart granted Vasquez a new trial Monday, based on his accuser's new account. Boening said he will move to dismiss the charge, however, because he cannot prove the case without the accuser's testimony.

The public defender appointed to represent Vasquez said justice has been served.

"The truth finally came out; unfortunately, it took eight years," Richard Edinger said.

Police arrested Vasquez in May 1997, after officials at Drayton Foods in Fargo reported an assault. Police also arrested a second employee, Juan Caballero, who was later convicted of being an accomplice to gross sexual imposition and sentenced to four years.

The company fired both suspects.

Boening said the accuser, who is mildly retarded and suffers from severe depression, was so convincing that Boening to try the case based almost entirely on his testimony.

A sheriff's deputy who interviewed the suspects and the accuser also testified.

In October 2004, the accuser approached authorities again and told them he had made up the attack, Boening said. The man told him people at work were harassing him, he said.

"He did not want to go through the rest of his life being a rape victim," Boening said.

At Monday's hearing, the man said he fabricated the story to get back at the two suspects for teasing. He refused to repeat what he had said in October about the harassment that resulted from the case, Boening said.

Vasquez, who is now being held in the Cass County Jail, could be released within a few days, Edinger said. Vasquez refused to comment through jail staff.