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Hastert Sentenced To Prison

Tannen Maury
/
EPA

Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert was sentenced Wednesday to 15 months in prison for breaking federal banking rules in a scheme to cover up sexual abuse. The banking charges are just part of broader allegations that the former House speaker molested at least four former students when he was a teacher and wrestling coach at Yorkville High outside Chicago.

Hastert's attorney, Thomas Green, says his client accepts the sentence and will focus on addressing his health issues and "healing the emotional damage" inflicted on his family and friends. Hastert also faces sex offender treatment, two years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine that'll go to a crime victims fund.  

The sex abuse victim who testified against Dennis Hastert at the former U.S. House speaker's sentencing hearing says he finally decided to do so publicly after Hastert reached out to his brother for a letter of support. Scott Cross is a 53-year-old businessman who lives in the Chicago suburbs and was on the Yorkville High School wrestling team that Hastert coached in the 1970s. Cross, whose brother is former Illinois House Republican leader Tom Cross, said in court that Hastert fondled him on a locker room table after practice.  

U.S. Attorney Zachary Fardon says those who testified in federal court about being sexually abused by Dennis Hastert were ``courageous,'' ``selfless'' and critical to ensuring a ``day of reckoning.''  Testimony included the sister of another man who was abused and is now deceased. Fardon says ``history would have told a lie'' without the case and the victims' testimony. He also thanked the ``tenacity'' of law enforcement for bringing the case to light.  

Two former educators at the high school where former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert once worked say the man they were once so proud of deserves the prison sentence. Frank Babich became Yorkville High School's principal a few years after Hastert left but says Hastert betrayed the students to whom he was a hero whenever he returned to talk about government and attend wrestling tournaments. He says the molestation devastated the boys and the entire community. The saga is much more personal for Bob Evans, because Hastert was one of his closest friends. He says he's spent months trying to remember if he saw anything that would have made him suspicious and that he wishes he had seen something because maybe he could have prevented some of the abuse.

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