Shame on her; it must be horrible to finally being relevant and close to the top and then being dragged down because of this - it's the prince of the fame.
I feel bad for hearing her crying, but the truth is she deserves a harsher 'punishment' in my opinion: even if she hadn't dated this guy, she broke the rules of being in contact with him by giving private information like her phone number. You can say that she was just a naive girl trusting in the wrong people, but above everything, she's an idol under contract and the rules are very clear.
I think that it would be more honorable to ask herself for a suspension of her activities and fight back to get the respect of the press and fellow members; Ayarin was fired when an incident alike happened (isn't it ironic? Sasshi was promoted to fill the place she left) and well, Nacchan and Yonechan got fired as well. When Okaro got caught in that rumour of spending the night with her stage director (or something like that) she resignated herself from her role as captain until prove she was worth of getting it back. And not necessarly because it was true, but because she knew that kind of rumours and scandals stains the group.
HKT48 haven't debuted yet and now, they have to be under Sasshi's shadow - the group will be known (or is already know) as 'the group where former AKB48 Sashihara got demoted'; it's not fair for these girls. But well, on a positive light, I hope they work harder to suppass her and overcome this. And I also hope Sasshi fights hard to prove herself worth of continue being an idol, because she cannot sell her 'hetare' role forever. Not after this.