ILLINOIS
Journal Courier
AP
Illinois is set to eliminate the statute of limitations in child sex-abuse cases, a change prosecutors and a victim of former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert called for after Hastert was imprisoned for violating banking laws while trying to silence a student he abused decades ago.
The Illinois House unanimously approved the legislation Thursday, sending it to Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, who supports it.
State Attorney General Lisa Madigan argued Hastert’s case provided a prime example of why Illinois should join 36 other states and the federal government in removing its time limits for charging people accused of child-sex crimes.
A federal judge dubbed Hastert “a serial child molester” at his sentencing last year, saying the former speaker sexually abused at least four former students at Yorkville High School in suburban Chicago from 1965 to 1981.
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