CHICAGO (AP) - The Latest on the release of former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert from a Minnesota federal prison (all times local):
3:55 p.m.
Dennis Hastert is far from putting his child sex-abuse scandal in the past just because he’s been released from a federal prison after serving a little over a year on a related banking conviction.
The disgraced former U.S. House speaker now enters a post-prison phase that includes intensive court-ordered sex-offender treatment designed to ensure he never again poses a risk to children.
Prison officials confirmed Tuesday he was released the day before. He was sentenced to 15 months in prison in 2016 in a case that revealed he sexually abused teenagers while coaching at an Illinois high school. He was also given two years of supervised released.
Common sex-offender treatments include lie-detector tests to determine how many times the person sexually abused kids. Hastert could be sent back to prison if he doesn’t cooperate fully with the court-mandated treatments.
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11:05 a.m.
A former close friend of Dennis Hastert says he hopes the former U.S. House speaker’s release from prison means an end to the saga is close.
Bob Evans was a coach at Yorkville High School when Hastert taught there and coached wrestling. Hastert pleaded guilty to violating federal banking law in seeking to pay $3.5 million in hush money to keep secret allegations that he sexually abused teenagers while a coach.
Evans said Tuesday that he has no interest in ever seeing Hastert again. He says he hopes that once the news stories about Hastert’s release from prison run their course, “We will never have to hear about this again.”
The Federal Bureau of Prisons says Hastert was released Monday from a prison in Minnesota and transferred to the jurisdiction of a Chicago re-entry facility.
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10:20 a.m.
A man who says Dennis Hastert sexually abused him when he was a teen says he didn’t ask to be notified of the former House speaker’s release from prison and remains intent on moving on with his life.
Scott Cross said Tuesday that he doesn’t regret coming forward and testifying about the abuse during the Illinois Republican’s sentencing hearing in April 2016.
Records show Hastert has been released from a Minnesota federal prison and transferred to a Chicago re-entry facility. He reported to prison in June 2016 after pleading guilty to violating banking law. The case revealed accusations he sexually abused teenagers while coaching wrestling at a suburban Chicago high school.
Cross says he still believes Hastert’s 15-month sentence was a “slap on the wrist.” But he says federal authorities “got him on what they could.”
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7:50 a.m.
Federal records show former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert has been released from prison in Minnesota and transferred to a Chicago re-entry facility.
Hastert is nearing the end of a 15-month sentence that a federal judge gave him in April 2016 in a case that revealed accusations he had sexually abused teenagers while coaching wrestling at a suburban Chicago high school.
Federal Bureau of Prisons records Tuesday show Hastert is no longer at the Minnesota federal prison where he was serving his sentence. The records indicate he is at a Chicago residential re-entry management office. Records list his release date as Aug. 16.
The 75-year-old man pleaded guilty to violating federal banking law in seeking to pay $3.5 million in hush money to keep the sex abuse secret.
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