The man that held the title of Speaker of the House and 2nd in line to the White House was deemed a serial child molester today by a Federal Judge. Dennis Hastert sat in court today – listening to victim testimony about how he sexually abused them while a coach and teacher at Yorkville High School. Hastert had run afoul of federal banking laws when paying “hush money” to one of his victims. He wasn’t standing trial for child molestation because of the statute of limitations, but is facing 15 months in federal prison. US Attorney Zach Fardon say there are no winners on a day like this, but he’s proud of the work law enforcement did once Hastert reached out the FBI claiming that he was the victim.
Hastert will also face 2 years of supervised release and pay a $250,000 fine that will go to a victim services charity. A bombshell during the testimony was that one of Hastert’s victims was Scott Cross, the brother of state politician Tom Cross. Tom Cross had looked up to Hastert as a political mentor. Scott told of when Hastert molested him in the high school locker room.
US Attorney Zach Fardon says that hopefully today's victims of sexual abuse will see what happened in this cast and be moved to tell someone about it. He says it’s clear no matter how powerful someone is, the truth should come out.
