ILLINOIS
Chicago Tribune
Editorial
“As a 17-year-old boy, I was devastated. … Today I understand that I did nothing to bring this on, but at age 17 I could not understand what happened or why.”
At 53, Scott Cross had waited more than three decades to talk to anyone about the incident in which, he said, his high school wrestling coach sexually molested him. By the time he shared his story — with family, prosecutors and then to a packed courtroom — his alleged sexual abuser, Dennis Hastert, had escaped prosecution.
Yes, the former coach and U.S. House Speaker was prosecuted, but on a relatively minor financial violation — a wrinkle in the high-profile case that has renewed debate in Illinois and other states over the statute of limitations for cases involving sexual abuse of children. U.S. District Judge Thomas M. Durkin addressed the missed opportunity when he sentenced Hastert to 15 months in prison for making illegal bank withdrawals that prosecutors discovered were part of a hush-money agreement with one of Hastert’s victims.
“Because the statute of limitations for your child molestation ran out many years ago, you can’t be charged for that,” Durkin said at the April 27 sentencing. “And I can’t sentence you as a child molester. It’s not what you were charged with, it’s not what you’ve pled guilty to, and any sentence I give you today will pale in comparison to what you would have faced in state court.”
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