Judge Robert Pilmer on Thursday, the day after Hastert was sentenced to 15 months in prison for breaking federal banking laws in the case, ruled the accuser can continue with the suit as “James Doe”, for now.
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Former U.S. house speaker Dennis Hastert will be spending months in jail after being sentenced by a Chicago federal judge. Cross’s brother, Tom, a former longtime Illinois Republican House leader, had been a Hastert protegé. Yet the current charges and sentencing stem from what Hastert did as a high-school wrestling coach in the ’60s and ’70s.
In court, Cross started with heavy sigh, then began explaining that he was a young teenager who dreamed of making Hastert’s wrestling team, which had won the state championship just a few years after Cross and his family moved from Chicago. To give prison officials time to pick the right penitentiary, the judge did not set a date for him to report. However, Hastert will not be charged for sexual abuse as they have already expired under Illinois’ statute of limitations. Similar tests could include a device called a penile plethysmograph, which gauges a known molester’s physical reaction to specific images.
Earlier this month, prosecutors went into graphic detail about the sex-abuse allegations, even describing how Hastert would sit in a recliner in the locker room with a direct view of the showers.
The judge drew special attention to the lies Hastert told federal investigators previous year in a desperate bid to keep his dark secret hidden. One is that it should have a notable population of child molesters to help ensure Hastert’s safety. In such a place, the judge said, Hastert would be less likely to be singled out by other inmates. Wherever Hastert ends up, inmates who spend time with him would be screened to ensure they are not inclined to attack Hastert, the judge added. They also cited his health, saying a blood infection almost killed him in November and that a stroke has limited his mobility.
“If Denny Hastert could do it, anyone could do it, ‘” Durkin said.
As he adjourned the two-hour hearing, Durkin added: “I hope I never see a case like this again”. But he said finding a suitable facility should not be hard, noting many defendants older and sicker than Hastert are sent to prison.
“Losing your good name is a punishment”, Durkin said. It holds inmates of all security classifications, including Jared Lee Loughner, who is serving a life term for killing six people in the 2011 shooting that targeted former Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords.
“Hastert breached the settlement agreement, when he failed to make the agreed payments”, he said in his lawsuit, filed Monday in Kendall County.
An appeal is a possibility, but it’s a long shot. “Plaintiff never filed a personal injury action for the injuries caused by Hastert’s illegal conduct, never took any other action to seek redress for those injuries and did not disclose his claims…until he was required to truthfully answer questions from law enforcement”.
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His sister turned toward Hastert and said, “Don’t be a coward… tell the truth”.
