The man at the center of allegations against former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, previously identified only as "Individual A", has filed suit against Hastert, claiming the former speaker reneged on a deal to pay the young man millions of dollars.
Identified in court documents as "James Doe", the man alleges he was sexually abused by Hastert in a motel room when he was 14 years old.
"For many years to follow," the complaint states, "Plaintiff suffered severe panic attacks which lead to periods of unemployment, career changes, bouts of depression, hospitalization, and long-term psychiatric treatment."
The language of the complaint largely mirrors accusations from the federal charges, for which Hastert is scheduled to be sentenced on Wednesday.
"In 2008," the lawsuit states, "Plaintiff was made aware for the first time that Hastert had abused someone else, too. Doe met with Hastert to confront him about what he had done."
At that point, he said, he asked the former congressman to pay him $3.5 million "for the trauma he suffered as a result of the admitted sexual molestation and abuse," an amount which he says Hastert agreed to pay.
As has been previously disclosed, Hastert's payments were interrupted when his banks became suspicious, after he had paid Doe approximately $1.7 million dollars.
Now Doe says he believes he is due the rest of the money, arguing that he and Hastert had a binding agreement.
"Hastert breached the settlement agreement, when he failed to make the agreed payments," he said in his lawsuit, filed Monday in Kendall County. "Plaintiff never filed a personal injury action for the injuries caused by Hastert's illegal conduct, never took any other action to seek redress for those injuries and did not disclose his claims...until he was required to truthfully answer questions from law enforcement."
U.S. & World
The lawsuit seeks the $1.8 million dollars still owed from the apparently unwritten agreement, plus interest, and carries a demand for a jury trial.
