New suit accuses jailed former speaker of sex assault

Chicago — An Illinois man accuses Dennis Hastert in a new lawsuit of sexually assaulting him in bathroom stall when he was a fourth-grader, at least the fifth such allegation against the former House speaker who will soon be released from prison in a hush-money case.

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 1970s in Yorkville, Illinois, where Hastert was a high school wrestling coach, the Chicago Tribune reported.

The former Republican Illinois congressman, 75, has nearly completed a 15-month sentence for breaking banking law in trying to pay $3.5 million in hush money to one victim, referred to in filings in the criminal case as “Individual A.” Previous accusers had been in high school.

Hastert’s attorney didn’t immediately return messages from The Associated Press on Sunday seeking comment. A hearing in the case is set for Tuesday.

Doe began crying when he recognized Hastert during gym at Yorkville Grade School weeks later as the man who abused him, the suit filed Friday in Kendall County Circuit Court says. The grade school is next to Yorkville High School, where Hastert worked.

The suit says Doe “was traumatized, repressed the sexual assault by Hastert, and was intimidated into silence.” He says both Hastert and then-Kendall County State’s Attorney Dallas Ingemunson warned the boy not to make the accusations public.

Reached Saturday by the DeKalb Daily Chronicle, Ingemunson told the newspaper that “all these things (the new accuser) is saying are untrue.” He added: “I have no idea what he’s talking about.”

The suit was filed by the same Chicago law firm that filed a lawsuit against Hastert for Individual A, the Dekalb paper reported.