Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., was never the subject of any complaints or allegations of wrong-doing, say local authorities in his hometown of Yorkville, Ill. There were not even rumors involving the one-time House Republican, who is now alleged to have molested at least one boy when he was high school wrestling coach in the early 1970s.
“Denny Hastert as far as I know never had anything, not even a jaywalking complaint,” Kendall County Undersheriff Harold Martin, who worked for the Yorkville Police Department from 1979 to 2010, told the Chicago Tribune. “And I would have known for sure. Something like that we would have jumped on right away.”
Current Kendall County State’s Attorney Eric Weis, who’s served two decades in the position, said an exhaustive search of county records did not uncover anything similar to what federal authorities have alleged regarding Hastert.
Residents of the town similarly told the Tribune there was never any rumor of improper behavior by the retired lawmaker.
The former speaker is alleged by the FBI to have attempted to hide $1.7 million in withdrawals from his bank accounts over the last five years by making them in amounts just under the reporting requirements. The money was allegedly used to pay off an extortionist who threatened to reveal details about Hastert’s sexual abuse of students.
Hastert is scheduled to arraign Tuesday on charges of illegally structuring bank withdrawals and lying to investigators. He has not publicly spoken since the charges became public. He has not been charged with any crimes directly related to abusing minors.
The extortionist has been described by anonymous federal authorities as a Yorkville High School student that Hastert had molested decades earlier.
After the indictments became public, Jolene Budge, sister of former Hastert student Steven Reinboldt, said her brother confided to her in 1986 that he had been molested by Hastert before he graduated high school in 1971. Reinboldt died of AIDS-related complications in 1995.
Hastert had acquired a reputation as a straight arrow and the news shocked both Washington and Illinois. It struck Yorkville particularly hard, where he was revered as the coach of championship wrestling teams well before he went into politics.
