Chicago Public Schools’ watchdog determined there was insufficient evidence that Hilario Dominguez, a candidate for Chicago School Board president, engaged in sexual misconduct with a CPS student nearly a decade ago, in part because there were no eyewitnesses to the alleged behavior and her allegations did not point to a “sustained pattern of behavior.”
The 34-page report, obtained by WBEZ Friday through an open records request, notes that when the inspector general’s office first opened its case in 2021, it did so because CPS was notified that a Pilsen-based nonprofit had investigated Dominguez in 2018 for alleged conduct “that raised grooming concerns.”
But after interviewing the young woman who raised the allegations, investigators said the two incidents she recalled that made her feel uncomfortable in 2017, when she was 17 years old, were “less indicative of sexual misconduct” and “narrower in scope” than the internal report filed with the nonprofit.
The inspector general’s office said the woman alleged that Dominguez asked “about her dating preferences on one occasion” and physically picked her up “holding her body against his, and swinging her from side to side on another occasion.” After she complained to staff at The Resurrection Project, the nonprofit where she participated in a summer jobs program, Dominguez “never made her uncomfortable again.”
The reopened investigation, coming just weeks before voters head to the polls, has roiled the heated race for school board president. Dominguez, a former CPS teacher and former deputy political director for the Chicago Teachers Union, has denied the allegations and said they were surfaced by Aida Flores, a former political opponent who ran against him for a City Council seat in 2019.
The inspector general’s office said the upcoming election was not a factor in reopening the investigation, and that the young woman did not seem to have a political motive to first report the alleged behavior to The Resurrection Project in 2017.
The CPS watchdog reopened its investigation last month after the young woman, who is now 26, called that office and said she hadn’t known about the investigation and wanted a chance to speak with investigators.
“The political backdrop is relevant but should not distract from the question at the heart of this investigation: whether Dominguez attempted to groom [redacted name] for a sexual purpose or sexually harassed her,” the report states. “Given that those allegations were not otherwise corroborated by the evidence, the OIG did not have to consider the issue of political motivation to determine that the allegations against Dominguez are not substantiated.”
If the incidents did happen, the inspector general’s office wrote, it was also unclear if they were sexually motivated. The office said it’s possible the behavior the young woman described could have been “part of an ill-advised matchmaking effort or attempt to relate to her as a mentor.”
And while the alleged conduct, alongside the available evidence, didn’t meet the school district’s threshold for grooming or sexual harassment, the inspector general’s office said the alleged conduct would not be acceptable for a CPS staffer and noted that it would violate CPS’ current standards for boundaries between staff and students.
But those standards did not yet exist in 2017 and Dominguez was on a break from working at CPS at the time.
Earlier this week, Rima Kapitan, a lawyer for Dominguez, said the inspector general’s report “fully cleared” Dominguez of any wrongdoing.
Dominguez said in a statement on Wednesday that he now wants to “re-center his campaign” on education issues.
In a statement provided to WBEZ through her lawyer, the young woman said the process for investigating her claims had been “deeply flawed.”
“Like so many victims and survivors undermined by a broken system before me, I know what happened to me, and I am not going to be silenced,” she wrote. “While I am disappointed in the failure of this report to affirmatively verify my experience, it certainly does not exonerate Hilario Dominguez, or ‘clear him in full,’ as he claims.”
The inspector general’s office attempted to reach the young woman and her parents on 12 occasions in 2022, including leaving several voicemails for her mother and father as well as direct messages to the woman’s social media accounts, according to the report. It adds that the woman’s mother “would have been familiar with the OIG and would have been trained” on sexual misconduct investigation practices within CPS.
Additionally, investigators reviewed text messages that were “potentially inconsistent” with some of the young woman’s claims. She told the inspector general’s office that Dominguez had reached out to her on two occasions to set up a meeting in 2020 and 2022.
However, text messages show that it was the young woman, not Dominguez, who reached out for a meeting in 2022, including suggesting they meet alone. The meeting never took place.
The report adds that the potential inconsistencies could exist because the exchanges took place a long time ago.
In a statement Friday, Inspector General Philip Wagenknecht stressed that his office is apolitical and that its investigation began long before the school board president race kicked off this year. He said the investigation was in “no way” rushed or “concluded prematurely.”
“No one outside this office has influence over how OIG investigations are handled, and there were no external efforts to influence this matter,” he wrote.
The report cited “heavy caseload and limited resources” for the reason that it took five years to close the initial investigation.
The young woman’s lawyer sent letters Wednesday to the inspector general, CPS board members and the district’s superintendent calling for an independent review of how the inspector general’s office investigated this case.
Sixteen City Council members also called for an independent investigation Thursday, claiming the process was “tainted.”
“The Mayor’s hand-picked CPS Inspector General rushed a finding to meet the deadline he publicly demanded, sending a devastating message to every girl weighing whether to report abuse,” the members said in a statement.
A spokesperson for the mayor’s office said that “at no point” did it contact the inspector general’s office during its investigation or “make any attempt” to exert influence.
Contributing: Sarah Karp
