Former House Speaker For Illinois Accused Of Child Molestation Is Finally Arrested

Dennis Hastert, a former House Speaker, was accused of sexually abusing four underage boys while working as a high school coach many years ago. Nevertheless, the statute of limitations has expired, so he cannot face charges for those crimes. Nevertheless, the Republican from Illinois was arrested and charged with lying to the FBI regarding covering up his sex crimes.

And recently, this crime has proven to be the one that will place Hastert in jail. He was sentenced to 15 months in prison for illegal cash withdrawals that he made for the payoffs to cover up the sex abuse allegations after the judge named him a “serial child molester.”

Prior to actually issuing the given sentence, the judge Thomas M. Durkin, asked the former House Speaker about the peculiarities of the crime and whether he was sexually abusing his victims. For the very first time, Hastert decided to publically admit his misconduct. He also added that he was wrong and that he regrets his actions. He stated that those boys looked up to him and he took advantage of the situation.

In yet another horrifying detail, one of the victims, Scott Cross, also testified that Hastert molested him when he was a teenager. Cross is actually the younger brother of the former Illinois House Republican leader Tom Cross and he looked up to Hastert as a politically superior mentor.

Despite the fact that Hastert molested his younger brother, he had the nerve to ask Tom Cross for a letter of support as a part of his criminal case.

During the recent proceedings, when referring to the political career of Hastert, the judge stated that the actions could destroy a lifetime of good work. The judge also referred to the defendant as a “serial child molester” thrice.

It is also worth mentioning that in his wild letter to the judge, the former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) actually stated that all people have their flaws, and while Dennis Hastert has flaws, he does not deserve what is happening to him. Obviously, the letter was not very persuasive.

Needless to say, the human element is pretty strong in this gut-wrenching story as is the anguish felt by the victims of Hastert’s actions and their families. Furthermore, do not forget about the political implications: the longest serving Republican House Speaker in American history, a person who was all too close to becoming president of USA for eight years, spent part of his life as an actual child molester, which was secret to everyone but Hastert himself and his victims.

Well, it turns out that from 1998 to 2006, the House Republicans were suffering one dirty scandal right after the other. The Democrats were using the “culture of corruption” label to great effect because it was true – from Gingrich to Livingston, DeLay to Cunningham, Ney to Foley, the GOP’s House majority simply could not stay away from problems.

Regardless of how many scandals hit the House Republicans, the GOP officials continued to refer to the humble Illinois Speaker as their honorable leader who was elevated to the post from relative obscurity due to his impeccable reputation. And now it turns out that what he was doing was far worse than any of his colleagues.

Hastert will have to spend 15 months in prison, will have to pay $250,000 in fines and will take a place on the sex offender program