ILLINOIS
Daily Southtown
Ted Slowik
Daily Southtown
It’s difficult to grasp the power that child sex predators hold over their prey. The fear they instill in their victims and the convincing lies they tell are keys to understanding people like Dennis Hastert, who U.S. District Judge Thomas M. Durkin said was a “serial molester.”
The stunning revelation of Hastert as the highest-ranking American politician known to have publicly admitted to sexually abusing minors deserves exploration of tough questions. How could a monster with such dark secrets achieve such power? Why did his victims remain silent for so long? What motivates victims to pursue compensation from those responsible for their suffering?
For help finding answers, I reached out to Tim Placher, an attorney and teacher who won awards for his Southtown columns describing his experience being abused by a priest as a teen.
Placher agreed to share his insight with readers and offer the perspective of a survivor who surrendered his privacy in pursuit of accountability.
Threads connect Placher’s abuse by the late Rev. Richard Ruffalo to the teen boys abused by Hastert, including Scott Cross, brother of former state representative and Illinois House Majority Leader Tom Cross. Their experiences happened in the 1970s and included despicable acts committed by men of power.
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