Judge suggests he’ll factor in Hastert lies at April 27 sentencing

Associated Press

CHICAGO

Dennis Hastert’s lawyers have suggested that what occurred with a 14-year-old in a motel decades ago may not qualify as sexual abuse, while the judge in the former U.S. House speaker’s hush-money case signaled Wednesday that he’ll factor in Hastert’s lies to investigators when he determines a sentence.

Federal prosecutors said at a hearing Wednesday in Chicago that someone identified as “Individual D” – one of at least four boys who prosecutors say Hastert sexually abused in the 1970s – would be one of two witnesses seeking to speak at the April 27 sentencing. The other is a sister of a now-deceased accuser.

The 14-year-old, referred to as “Individual A” in court papers, is at the core of the case.

Hastert pleaded guilty last fall to breaking banking law as he sought to pay $3.5 million to the man not to divulge his misconduct when he taught and coached wrestling from 1965 to 1981 in Yorkville, a Chicago suburb. After first saying he withdrew large sums because he didn’t trust banks, Hastert told investigators he was the target of a bogus sexual- abuse claim.

Individual A told prosecutors Hastert abused him in the late 1970s in a motel room on the way home from wrestling camp. He said Hastert, the only adult on the trip, touched him inappropriately after suggesting he would massage a groin injury the boy had, prosecutors said.

Defense attorneys called details of Individual A’s account of Hastert’s behavior “ambiguous.”

“We are not so certain that the incident qualifies as sexual misconduct, especially for a coach and trainer 42 years ago,” they said in the filing, unsealed Wednesday.

Prosecutors said there is no doubt.

Hastert “used his position of trust as a teacher and coach to touch a child’s genitals and then undress and ask the child for a back massage in a hotel room,” they said in a Friday filing. “There is no ambiguity; defendant sexually abused Individual A.”