AsCoach, Ex-US House Speaker Molested 5 Boys: Reports
WASHINGTON, UNITED STATES: Stunning new details have emerged of ex-House speaker Dennis Hastert's molestation of boys as young as 14, a precipitous fall from grace for a man once second in line to the presidency.
The 74-year-old Republican lobbyist agreed to pay $3.5 million to one of his youngest victim, federal prosecutors said in a filing detailing for the first time abuse allegations by five former high school wrestlers he coached
Hastert's abuse consisted of "intentional touching of minors' groin area and genitals or oral sex with a minor," according to prosecutors.
The nature of the misconduct, allegations of which first emerged last year, had not previously been officially confirmed.
Ironically, it was a scandal involving a former lawmaker -- Mark Foley -- sending sexually explicit and suggestive messages to teenage pages, or aides, that led to Hastert's downfall as speaker of the House of Representatives, a post he held from 1999 to 2007.
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'No Ambiguity'
Prosecutors said the money served to pay Individual A after Hastert made him stay in his motel room during a wrestling camp and massaged his groin area.
"Defendant 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 motel room," prosecutors wrote of that encounter.
"There is no ambiguity; defendant sexually abused Individual A."
Hastert gave two other boys aged 14 and 17 a massage in the locker room before performing an unspecified sex act on them in separate instances.
One of those boys indicated that the coach would sit in a recliner chair "in direct view of the shower stalls in the locker room where he sat while the boys showered," prosecutors said.
Stephen Reinboldt, who died in 1995, was abused by Hastert throughout his time in high school in 1967-1971
'Stunning Hypocrisy'
In his filing, Assistant US Attorney Steven Block accused Hastert of "stunning hypocrisy."
In a 2004 memoir, Hastert wrote that "there's never sufficient reason to try to strip away another person's dignity."
Block commented: "Yet that is exactly what defendant did to his victims. He made them feel alone, ashamed, guilty and devoid of dignity.
"While defendant achieved great success, reaping all the benefits that went with it, these boys struggled, and all are still struggling now with what defendant did to them."