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Dennis Hastert: Former U.S. House Speaker Sexually Abused Four Teens, Prosecutors Say

By Pam Wright
Published on: 01:34 PST, Apr 9, 2016

J. Dennis Hastert, the former speaker of the House, is accused of molesting at least four boys, as young as 14, when he worked as a high school wrestling coach decades ago, according to federal prosecutors.

According to a report by The Chicago Tribune, Hastert, 74, is not being charged for the decades-old abuse allegations because of statutes of limitation, prosecutors said.

The allegations came to light after Hastert was convicted last year of illegally structuring bank withdrawals to pay off one of his victims in an effort to hide the abuse.

In October, Hastert pleaded guilty to the banking violation, and while awaiting sentencing, suffered a stroke in November. His sentencing is scheduled for April 27.

In a court filing late Friday in conjunction with sentencing, the prosecutors described disturbing incidents that they say occurred when Hastert was a popular, championship-winning coach in a small Illinois town in the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s.

The “known acts,” the prosecutors said, consisted of “intentional touching of minors’ groin area and genitals or oral sex with a minor.”

“The actions at the core of this case took place not on the defendant’s national public stage but in his private one-on-one encounters in an empty locker room and a motel room with minors that violated the special trust between those young boys and their coach.”

As previously reported by the Inquisitr, Hastert requested probation earlier this week and said he was “profoundly sorry” for his past conduct.

According to the prosecutors’ report, Hastert gave a 14-year-old freshman wrestler a massage in the locker room before performing an unspecified sex act on him. Another boy, Stephen Reinboldt, who died in 1995, was reportedly sexually abused by Hastert throughout high school in the late 1960s and early 1970s, according to his sister and others.

A third, 17-year-old boy at the time remembered Hastert sitting in a recliner-type chair with a direct view of the locker room shower stalls. The boy accused Hastert of telling him that one way to make his wrestling weight was to get a massage. He then performed a sexual act on the boy. And prosecutors said Hastert had massaged another boy’s groin area after asking the boy to stay in his hotel room during a wrestling camp.

In 2010, the boy known as Individual A approached the Republican speaker of the House and asked him why he had done what he did. The boy sought a settlement, which began the series of payments that would be Hastert’s downfall.

In late 2014, law enforcement authorities began investigating the unusually large withdrawals from Hastert’s bank account. Hastert’s lawyer eventually said that Hastert was paying large sums — and promising as much as $3.5 million, the authorities say — to Individual A, because Individual A was extorting him for false allegations of abuse.

In the court filing Friday, prosecutors say they believe Hastert should face up to six months in prison, as suggested under federal guidelines.

Taking note of Hastert’s poor health, they said Hastert could continue receiving medical treatment in prison.

According to The New York Times, Steven A. Block, an assistant United States Attorney, said Hastert’s sentencing judge should “balance the positive nature of defendant’s public service with the need to avoid a public perception that the powerful are treated differently than ordinary citizens when facing sentencing for a serious crime.”

[Photo by Christian K. Lee/AP Images]

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