Imprisoned Hastert fights for tax-covered pension

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Michael Tarm, Associated Press
Updated 4:32 pm, Monday, November 28, 2016


CHICAGO (AP) Dennis Hastert is serving a 15-year prison term in a hush-money case that stemmed from his sexual abuse of students when he taught at an Illinois public school over 35 years ago. The ex-U.S. House speaker is now pointing to a technicality to argue that a state body should restore his 17,000-a-year teacher's pension that it yanked after his April 27 sentencing.

A recent letter from Hastert's lawyer to the agency overseeing the pensions notes his conviction was not for sexual abuse when he was at Yorkville High School from 1965 to 1981: It was for one count of violating banking law as Hastert withdrew cash from 2010 to 2014 as he sought to pay one victim 3.5 million to ensure his silence. On those grounds, they say, his teacher's pension can't be revoked. .

. . .

In the lead-up to sentencing, prosecutors disclosed in court filings that Hastert abused at least four teenage boys who attended Yorkville, including in the boy's school locker room. At sentencing, U.S. District Judge Thomas M. Durkin dubbed Hastert "a serial child molester."

Had Hastert been convicted of abusing those students, there would be no question that withdrawing his pension was legal. Prosecutors made clear that, if they could have charged Hastert with sexual abuse, they would have. But the statute of limitations expired decades ago, so the only option for offering those abused some semblance of justice, prosecutors said, was to charge him with comparatively mundane banking violations.


Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Imprisoned-Hastert-fights-for-tax-covered-pension-10640673.php

[ToxMarz]

1. They should just offer to keep some money in his account at the Prison

commissary for cigarettes and Honey Buns.

[keithbvadu2]

2. He is already in a taxpayer paid pension plan - for 15 years.

[putitinD]

3. Shut-up Hastert, just enjoy all that good prison sex.

[tammywammy]

4. Rape jokes aren't funny.

[BobTheSubgenius]

6. I totally agree.

There is nothing funny, acceptable or....non-reprehensible in any way...about rape. I had it affect my life in a huge and dramatic way when, out of the blue, my former fiance touched on her ordeal. It left her mistrustful, angry and unable to bond with men in a meaningful way, and our relationship was an anomaly. In fact, I was the second person she ever told, other than her elder sister - she had been forced into becoming an accomplished actress.

So, please don't think I'm being flippant or casual about this subject. At one time, I thought I was capable of significant violence to this unknown person. I'm getting angry just by dredging this up, even after 20 years.

All of that is a LONG way to go to hopefully convey this as a serious, sincere response. Often, sex in prison is consensual, even if one (or both) of the pair considers himself heterosexual on the outside. Years ago, I had a contract to do a couple of weeks of work per year inside a federal medium security prison, and saw dispensers for condoms and packets of lube in several places.

[reggaehead]

8. The Hell you say

That was damn funny

[tammywammy]

10. Men being raped in prison is not funny.

[hughee99]

5. I REALLY hate to say this, but Hastert has a point.

He can rot in jail for the rest of his life, but this sort of sets the precedent that pensions can be wiped out for things like violating banking laws, or for crimes a person wasn't convicted of.

[Travelman]

7. I thought he was in a coma?

I was sure I read an article a year or so ago that he was in a coma? Liver failure or something?

[BlueStater]

9. I thought it was 15 months?

I wish it really was 15 years. He's already 74. The fucker deserves to take his last breath in a prison cell.