UNITED STATES
NPR

DAVID SCHAPER

Illinois lawmakers may soon vote to eliminate the state’s statute of limitation on child sex abuse crimes.

The move comes in response to the 15-month sentence given last month to former House Speaker Dennis Hastert. Hastert admitted molesting teenage boys he coached decades ago, but he could only be sentenced for a financial crime related to his efforts to pay one of his victims millions in hush money to cover up the crime.

In Hastert’s case, Scott Cross told a Chicago federal courtroom last month what he called “his darkest secret:” that Hastert, his high school wrestling coach, molested him in 1979. It was a secret Cross held for 36 years.

The federal judge in the case expressed frustration that he could only sentence the former House Speaker for providing hush-money payments because the statute of limitations on the sex abuse had run out…