Lawsuit Accuses Dennis Hastert of Sodomizing 4th-Grader

'Richard Doe' claims it happened in 1973 or 1974
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted May 29, 2017 12:39 PM CDT
Lawsuit Accuses Dennis Hastert of Sodomizing 4th Grader
In this April 27, 2016, file photo, former House Speaker Dennis Hastert departs the federal courthouse in Chicago.   (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File)

In a new lawsuit, an Illinois man accuses Dennis Hastert of sexually assaulting him in a bathroom stall when he was a fourth-grader. It's at least the fifth such allegation against the former House speaker, who will soon be released from prison in a hush-money case, though previous accusers were in high school at the time of the alleged assaults. The suit was filed in a suburban Chicago court for a man using the pseudonym Richard Doe. It alleges Hastert abused him after the boy stopped during a bicycle ride to use the restroom in the summer of 1973 or 1974 in the Game Farm Building in Yorkville, Illinois. The location is now a parking lot for Yorkville High School, where Hastert was a high school wrestling coach, the Chicago Tribune reports.

Doe alleges a man opened the door of the stall he was using and sodomized him. He says he saw the man's face but didn't know who he was. Doe alleges that changed a few weeks later when Hastert walked into him gym class at Yorkville Grade School, which is next to Yorkville High School. The suit, filed Friday in Kendall County Circuit Court, says Doe "was traumatized, repressed the sexual assault by Hastert, and was intimidated into silence." He says about a decade later he tried to report the crime to the Kendall County State's Attorney's office, but says he was warned not to make the accusations public. A hearing in the case is set for Tuesday, reports the AP. The former Republican Illinois congressman, 75, is due to be released from prison as early as July. (More Dennis Hastert stories.)

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