SAGA

Jailed Former House Speaker Faces New Sexual Assault Allegation

New lawsuit claims Dennis Hastert abused a fourth-grader.

Former House speaker Dennis Hastert, currently serving out a 15-month prison sentence for breaking banking law, has been hit with at least his fifth allegation of sexual assault. The accuser, who has been identified only by the pseudonym Richard Doe, alleged in court documents that the former Illinois congressman abused him in a school bathroom when he was a fourth-grader and Hastert was working as a high school wrestling coach. Doe said he “was traumatized, repressed the sexual assault by Hastert, and was intimidated into silence” in court documents filed in Kendall County Circuit Court, the Associated Press reported Sunday. A hearing in the case has been scheduled for Tuesday. Hastert is due for release from prison in less than three months after an indictment was handed down in 2015 over illicit payments to a man who said Hastert abused him. Prosecutors said at that time that the statute of limitations had expired to charge him with any sex-related crimes, so he was indicted for financial violations. Federal prosecutors have accused Hastert of touching at least five male students during his time as a coach at Yorkville High School from 1965 to 1981.