Prosecutors say that Hastert still was abusing boys when he first made a decision to run for office, but that he had managed to keep any hint of sexual misconduct quiet throughout a political career that carried him from the Illinois Legislature to the halls of Congress and eventually to the speaker’s office, where he was second in the line of succession to the presidency. It said it occurred in a locker room and in a motel room.
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The documents said Hastert asked at least one student athlete to strip naked while they were alone in a motel room so he could massage the boy’s injured groin area.
The records show that Hastert’s office kept a legislative file titled “Homosexuals”, filled with policy statements from social conservative groups like the Traditional Values Coalition and the Family Research Council that criticized same-sex marriage and Clinton administration efforts to prevent discrimination against gays and lesbians.
Hastert helped put Yorkville on the map during his eight years as House speaker, making his unmasking all the more painful, several residents said.
Hastert worked at Yorkville High School (pictured) between 1965 and 1981. According to the BBC, Hastert was allegedly able to pay the victims upwards of $3.5 million before being questioned by the Federal Bureau of Investigation about the withdrawals.
But as his April 27 sentencing date nears, a 26-page sentencing memo filed on Friday paints an even grimmer picture.
Prosecutors said that during a massage session, Hastert brushed his hand over the genitals of another boy, who found the encounter “very weird”. That came as reaction to a recollection by a then-17-year-old wrestler referred to as Individual D in court filings who later told prosecutors that he was molested by Hastert during a massage while staying after practice to cut weight.’I remember this chair, ‘ Richter said on Twitter. It describes a “Lazyboy” style chair where Hastert often sat in the locker room with a direct view of the stalls where the boys showered.
“While [Hastert] achieved great success, reaping all the benefits that went with it”, prosecutors wrote, “these boys struggled, and all are still struggling now with what defendant did to them”.
He told government agents he was being extorted by someone falsely accusing him of abuse, but recorded conversations between him and the person identified as “Individual A” cast doubt over his claim.
In the court filing, prosecutors say Hastert “was so sure his secrets were safe that he apparently had no fears about entering a profession where one is subject to constant scrutiny and media attention”.
What he pleaded guilty to – and will be sentenced for – is violating federal bank structuring laws by withdrawing $925,000 in cash payments of less than $10,000 each to escape federal regulatory scrutiny.
Burdge had already confronted Hastert at her brother’s funeral and he could see “she had been deeply affected by what defendant did to her brother, and she was likely to tell her story publicly if anyone would listen”, the filing states.
Prosecutors claimed in papers released Friday that he had sexually abused at least four boys during his tenure – and paid $3.5 million for silence from one of his accusers.
A fifth boy, Stephen Reinboldt, also associated with the wrestling team, is also alleged to have been abused by Hastert, but Reinboldt died of AIDS in 1995.
As for Hastert, his lawyers say, he is emotionally and physically crushed, an isolated individual abandoned by many onetime friends and doomed to spend whatever time is left to him in illness and disgrace.
Richter attended Yorkville High School in the 1980s.
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“The federal and state statutes of limitations have long expired on potential charges relating to defendant’s known sexual acts against Individual A and other minors”, the prosecution said in today’s filing. “By December 2014…defendant had withdrawn a total of $1.7 million in cash in approximately four and a half years”. Prosecutors are also asking the judge to require Hastert to under sex offender evaluation, and to comply with any recommended treatment.
