‘Spotlight’ film pushed victim to speak out against Hastert

By Mitch Dudek
Chicago Sun-Times
June 26, 2016

http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/spotlight-film-pushed-victim-to-speak-out-against-hastert/

Scott Cross, speaking about his experience on Sunday testifying against ex-House Speaker Dennis Hastert

1980 Yorkville High School yearbook photo of senior Scott Cross. Cross testified in federal court that he was a sexual abuse victim of Dennis Hastert.

Priest abuse survivor Phil Saviano, left, and actor Neal Huff, who portrayed Saviano in the film ‘Spotlight’ outside a protest at the Thompson Center Sunday Photo by Mitch Dudek

Scott Cross, who was hailed as a hero for speaking out about the sexual abuse he suffered as as teenager at the hands of former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, was lauded for his courage during an award ceremony Sunday in downtown Chicago honoring survivors of abuse.

Phil Saviano, whose abuse at the hands of a Catholic priest was an integral part of the Oscar-winning film “Spotlight,” handed Cross a plaque before several hundred people who’d gathered for an annual conference hosted by Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests at a downtown hotel.

“The movie ‘Spotlight’ was a very powerful movie for me as I struggled talking to my wife about this,” Cross told the audience after accepting the award.

Cross first opened up publicly about being abused at the age of 17 by Hastert, who was his wrestling coach at the time at Yorkville High School, while speaking in court at Hastert’s sentencing in late April.

“There were several reasons I thought about telling my story in a very open format that scared the hell out of me,” he said, according to a video of his remarks provided to the Sun-Times.

“As I was getting close to my decision to come forward, my wife had been encouraging me to go see the movie ‘Spotlight,'” he said of the film, which shows work by the Boston Globe to uncover the priest sex abuse scandal there.

“I just sat there by myself watching that movie, and it was a very powerful, powerful decision to come forward on top of Coach Hastert making some phone calls to my brother about a letter of support,” Cross said in reference to the audacious move by Hastert to seek a letter of support from Cross’s brother, former Republican ally and House Minority Leader Tom Cross.

“As I had gone into therapy, I had been looking for a sign of what to do,” said Cross, noting that the petition from Hastert and the movie were the signs he needed to finally decide to speak out at sentencing.

Hastert was sentenced to 15 months in prison for skirting federal banking laws to pay hush money to one of his victims. He was not charged with sex abuse crimes because the statute of limitations expired. He was accused of abusing four wrestlers and an equipment manager.

Saviano, who was abused by a priest as an adolescent in Boston, praised Cross.

“I thought it was particularly brave of him because, you know, it’s one thing to find the courage to go public, but in his case it’s going really public, like all around the country,” said during a post-award ceremony chat.

“And I just think it takes a lot of guts to do that. And you could see from his remarks that he’s still finding the experience to be quite moving. He showed a lot of emotion in his comments,” Saviano said.

Jolene Burdge, the sister of the deceased Stephen Reinboldt, who was also a victim of Hastert’s at Yorkville, received an award for advocating for justice on his behalf.

Following the award ceremony, a group of about 50 attendees marched to the Thompson Center to hold a rally calling for legislators on the state and federal level to reform statute of limitation laws that curtail the victims of sex crimes.