MUST READ: Hastert is a Hypocrite, Says Sex Registry Reform Group
Decades after Dennis Hastert’s alleged sexual abuse of high school wrestlers he coached, the then-Speaker of the House helped pass a tough-on-sex-crimes law known as the Adam Walsh Act.
Now a Florida group that calls that 2006 law “ineffective and unduly harsh,” is asking U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin to consider “hundreds of thousands” of victims it says the law left in its wake while sentencing Hastert for a related hush-money case.
In a sentencing brief filed last week, federal prosecutors for the first time said Hastert molested at least four boys while he was a high school wrestling coach in the 1970s in a southwest suburb of Chicago. With the statute of limitations long expired for those alleged abuses, prosecutors said six months is the maximum prison sentence facing Hastert for a banking crime at his scheduled April 27 hearing.
Hastert’s work on the Adam Walsh Act was “hypocritical and self-serving,” wrote Gail Colletta, the president of the Florida Action Committee, an organization seeking sex registry reform, in a letter filed by the court Tuesday. She asked the judge to impose a sentence longer than the six-month maximum advised by federal guidelines.
“Hundreds of thousands of individuals and their millions of family members and friends have to live with the draconian punishments he fostered,” Colletta wrote. “These individuals are also the victims of Mr. Hastert’s actions.”
Colletta said there are more than 800,000 people in the United States today on sex offender registries, which the 2006 act bolstered. Many of those registered committed “non-violent, one-time” offenses, she said. Her organization seeks sex offender registry and sentencing reform, particularly for juveniles convicted for consensual acts.
“The Florida Action Committee has members who have or are serving decades in prison for consensual teenage relationships and acts that involved no direct victim contact,” Colletta wrote.
Hastert pleaded guilty in October to a structuring violation related to $1.7 million he withdrew from bank accounts prosecutors say was used to pay off a sex abuse victim.
When the Adam Walsh Act was passed in 2006, Hastert, then the Speaker of the House, released a statement celebrating the passage on the 25th anniversary of the abduction of Adam Walsh, a Florida boy taken at a mall and later found dead. His father, John Walsh, went on to host “America’s Most Wanted.”
“At home, we put the security of our children first and Republicans are doing just that in our nation’s House,” Hastert said at the time. “We’ve all seen the disturbing headlines about sex offenders and crimes against children. These crimes cannot persist.”
In 2003, Hastert advocated for another child sex crimes law known as the Protect Act, which mandated life sentences in prison for repeat child molesters and created the Amber Alert system for missing children.
“It is equally important to stop those predators before they strike, to put repeat child molesters into jail for the rest of their lives and to help law enforcement with the tools they need to get the job done,” Hastert said in a statement in 2003. In a sentencing brief filed last week, Hastert’s Sidley Austin lawyers asked Durkin to forego prison time and impose a probation sentence. The brief said Hastert nearly died from a rare blood stream infection in November, and that he was remorseful, apologizing for “misconduct that occurred many decades ago.”
“By any measure, appearing before this Court to receive its sentence will be the most difficult day in Mr. Hastert’s life,” his lawyer, Sidley partner Thomas Green, wrote.
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Dennis Hastert committed much of his political career passing laws that serve to punish, shame and alienate a segment of the population. All the while, he was villainizing this group in order to divert attention (and likely guilt) from his own horrible misdeeds. Ron Book fiercely lobbies to punish sex offenders as a crusade for his daughter, but his daughter was molested by the nanny that Mr. Book himself brought into their home. John Walsh started dating Reve when she was 16 and he was in his 20s. Mark Lunsford was looking at child pornography on his computer the night his daughter was abducted, his son Kevin molested a 14 year old. It would great to see these crusaders for punishment get saddled with the harsh stigma they fought for (and rightly deserve). http://floridaactioncommittee.org/?p=4172#comment-3777
My life destroyed. Everyday more difficult then last. Never touched anyone. Off probation 20 years. Can’t even vote. Crime imposed on men. Like a Salem witch hunt.
Dennis Hastert committed much of his political career passing laws that serve to punish, shame and alienate a segment of the population. All the while, he was villainizing this group in order to divert attention (and likely guilt) from his own horrible misdeeds. Ron Book fiercely lobbies to punish sex offenders as a crusade for his daughter, but his daughter was molested by the nanny that Mr. Book himself brought into their home. John Walsh started dating Reve when she was 16 and he was in his 20s. Mark Lunsford was looking at child pornography on his computer the night his daughter was abducted, his son Kevin molested a 14 year old. It would great to see these crusaders for punishment get saddled with the harsh stigma they fought for (and rightly deserve).
Can an offender run for any kinds of office?
Yes
“Would John Walsh call this guy a Scumbag on air?
John Walsh is a sex offender himself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJSrFgwGeOs
This is the elephant in the room. Guilt or innocence is irrelevant in the American “justice” system. It’s all about popularity, money and power. How else can you justify countless cases where a hands-on molester gets their case pleaded down to either a felony that doesn’t require registration – or prison time apparently, or to a misdemeanor, while those who merely viewed and possessed child pornography – mostly provided by law enforcement, languish in prison for years and spend a lifetime on the registry?
“MISCONDUCT? That is a military term for violation of rules. He committed multiple violent sexual acts against children. Then he disguised these heinous acts by politicizing sex crimes and voting for unfair laws. Do the crime, do the time does not apply here if he gets 6 months for bribing his victims. He is sick, needs to be locked up or a mental facility.
Now that’s some good press! Great job FAC!
Anyone who is able to; please leave supportive comments under the article (on National Law Journal). This is a wonderful opportunity to expose the truth.
I was going to do that… But I’d have to create a new account (which would not be registered) gotta love that freedom of speech!