Hypocrisy Files
Poetic Justice
"Parole Commissioner Charged with Sex Offense," 18 Pro Se 4 (2008), pg. 6.
"A New York State Parole Board Commissioner was arrested in October 2008 and charged with trying to set up a sexual liaison with two under-aged girls. The Commissioner, Chris Ortloff, 61, was arrested in an Albany-area hotel by federal officials. According to the officials, Ortloff thought he was going to be meeting a 12-year-old girl and her 11-year-old sister who were to be dropped off by a parent. Ortloff was charged federally with using the Internet to solicit sex from under-aged girls. If convicted, he faces 10 years to life and a $250,000 fine. Ortloff is a former State assembly member representing the Plattsburgh area. Ortloff rose to the rank of Assistant Minority Leader and was considered a tough-on-crime legislator, and often called for stronger criminal justice laws, particularly for crimes against children. In 2006, then-Governor Pataki appointed him to the Parole Board, where he was part of panels who interviewed inmates before voting whether to authorize their release. He now faces up to life in federal prison."
He was released on October 4, 2019, after only eleven years of imprisonment and a very much shorter time than others convicted for much lesser offenses.
"Hastert's Multiple Selves," Frank Bruni, The Week, 5/13/16, pg. 12.
[Originally appeared in The New York Times.]
"For a lesson on the riddles of human nature, look no further than Dennis Hastert," said Frank Bruni. The former House speaker was among the Republicans who denounced President Bill Clinton as "immoral" for the affair with Monica Lewinsky, and even championed legislation that would put serial sex offenders behind bars for life. He was widely viewed by colleagues as a "safe, uncontroversial," and religious man who participated in a Bible study group on Capitol Hill. Yet as we've since learned, Hastert was hiding a terrible secret all those years: He had sexually molested at least four teenage wrestlers he coached in high school, who were subsequently tormented by the shame and confusion typical of abuse victims. After he left Congress, Hastert later agreed to pay millions in hush money to one of those victims -- and broke federal law by trying to hide those transactions. So who was the real Dennis Hastert? The kind, humble, God-fearing man, or the serial molester? Both. To function, Hastert "walled off whole parts of himself" and pretended they weren't there. In truth, we are all "multiple people," compartmentalized into contradictory selves. Some parts are more hidden than others -- "even from the person himself."
