Individual A has filed a breach of contract lawsuit against Hastert, for failing to pay all of the money they agreed upon, as compensation for Hastert’s past abuse.
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Cross said Hastert had “offered massages” to him in order to help him lose weight.
“Because I trusted him, I believed him and took him at his word”, he said Wednesday in his victim impact statement. What I did was wrong, and I regret it.
After he was told by bank officials that any withdrawals of 10,000 dollars or more had to be reported to regulators, Hastert began to withdraw cash in 9,000 dollars increments and paid Individual A in increments of 50,000 or 100,000 dollars in meetings held at a Yorkville restaurant parking lot, prosecutors said.
Investigators accused him of abusing high school athletes when he was a wrestling coach in Yorkville. Reinboldt died of AIDS in 1995.
“If he had told the truth, I’m not sure we would be here today”, Durkin said. “That’s what compelled me to come forward”, Cross said.
She told prosecutors Reinboldt’s first homosexual experience was with Hastert and that Hastert abused him throughout high school. He will report to prison at a later date.
Still, he said he did not intend for Hastert’s punishment to be “a death sentence”.
Hastert pleaded guilty in October to violating banking reporting laws as he sought to pay someone $3.5 million. His attorneys say he has been in poor health after nearly dying from a blood infection and suffering a stroke in November. The Associated Press normally does not name sexual abuse victims, but Scott Cross gave the AP permission to publish his name after the hearing.
In a Kendall county courtroom Thursday morning, one of Hastert’s victims tried to proceed with his lawsuit without having to be named.
The judge drew special attention to the lies Hastert told federal investigators past year in a desperate bid to keep his dark secret hidden.
Defense attorney Thomas Green said he “acknowledges and respects” the pain of the man who described being molested. Durkin said he acknowledges Hastert suffered a “catastrophic illness and is at risk for complications”, which Hastert’s defense team has said was a stroke that almost took his life.
“Decades of not just political achievement but acts of goodness and charity have been erased, a lot of it even physically as his name has been removed from public places and his portrait at the Capitol put into storage”, Green said.
That year, Cross said, he found himself alone with Hastert in the wrestling team’s locker room, which was separate from the school’s other athletic facilities. “Neither we as his lawyers, nor Mr. Hastert, have the present insight to understand and reconcile the unfortunate and harmful incidents he caused decades ago with the enduring achievements, leadership, and generosity that earned him extraordinary affection and respect throughout this country during his many years of public service”. The judge did acknowledge Hastert’s poor health by saying that he should be sent to a prison hospital.
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Browne represents Individual A, one of Hastert’s five victims.
