Former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert was sentenced to 15 months in prison for bank fraud on Wednesday after admitting he sexually abused at least two students when he was a teacher at an IL high school.
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Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert has left a federal courthouse in Chicago after being sentenced to just over a year in prison in a hush-money case centered on sex-abuse allegations.
Before sentencing, Chicago Federal Court Judge Thomas Thornton described Hastert as a “serial child molester”.
Durkin, of the Northern District of IL, told Hastert that he should participate in a sex offender treatment program.
In explaining his punishment, the judge called Hastert a “serial child molester” and described as “unconscionable” his attempt to accuse one of the victims of extortion.
Hastert was sentenced for illegally structuring bank transactions in order to send hush money to his accusers.
He nearly immediately apologizes for “mistreating some of my athletes” from his days as an IL high school wrestling coach.
The man, now in his 50s, said Hastert abused him while they were alone in a locker room.
On Wednesday, a man testified that Mr. Hastert abused him when he was a member of the wrestling team, saying it was devastating and that he had kept it secret from family for decades.
Hastert’s sentencing is harsher than what both prosecutors and defense attorneys asked for.
Former U.S. House of Representatives speaker Dennis Hastert is surrounded by officers as he leaves federal court a year ago.
The 15-month sentence was less than the five years to which Hastert had been condemned after allegedly abusing five male teenagers decades ago, when he was a wrestling coach in the town of Yorkville, Illinois. Hastert admitted withdrawing $1.7 million in exchange for “silence and [to] compensate for past misconduct” towards an unnamed person, and he reportedly promised to pay $3.5 million to another. “I want to apologize to the boys I mistreated when I was a coach”, he said. Hastert added, “I accept his statement”.
Barbara Blaine, national president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a group that advocates for sex abuse victims, said she was pleased with the sentence.
Judge Thomas M. Durkin said Individual A was abused as a 14-year-old during a wrestling camp trip to Colorado.
Hastert served as speaker from 1998-2006. Statutes of limitations have long passed on the abuse, so he was only charged with breaking financial laws.
Hastert’s attorneys have asked the judge for a probation-only sentence, noting his ill health, remorse, and long history of public service.
The big news in court on Wednewsay was that “Individual D” identified himself as 53 year-old Scott Cross, the younger brother of former Illinois House Republican Minority leader Tom Cross.
Moments before the man took the stand, a woman who says her brother was sexually abused by Hastert told the courtroom that her sibling felt “betrayed, ashamed and embarrassed”.
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Hastert had been a mentor of sorts to Tom Cross, the Tribune reported. The sister of one victim says today was a victory and that Hastert will finally brought to justice.
