Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert dies at 84 after prison term

Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert died at 84 at his Illinois home from natural causes after serving 13 of 15 months in federal prison. He held the speakership from 1999 to 2007. In 2015 he pleaded guilty to structuring cash withdrawals to evade bank reporting while paying under a secret $3.5 million hush-money deal with one victim from his time as a Yorkville High School teacher and wrestling coach. Judge Thomas M. Durkin sentenced him in April 2016 and called him a serial child molester; Hastert said, I want to apologize to the boys I mistreated when I was their coach. Prosecutors said he abused boys as young as 14 from the 1960s to early 1980s; no abuse charges were filed because the statute of limitations had expired. He was ordered to pay $250,000 to a victims fund and enter sex-offender treatment. Coroner Jacquie Purcell said he passed away at his home due to natural causes and that no further information is available for release. Fox News referred to Purcell County while other outlets place the death in Kendall County; reports also vary on whether prosecutors detailed four or five victims.