The Chicago Public Schools watchdog did not substantiate misconduct allegations against a school board president candidate because they could not be corroborated and, even if proven true, did “not necessarily prove he acted for a sexual purpose,” according to a copy of the office’s report obtained by the Tribune.
In closing the case against Hilario Dominguez, CPS Inspector General Philip Wagenknecht’s office wrote that the allegations that he behaved inappropriately toward a 17-year-old volunteer at a non-profit where he worked nearly a decade ago lacked “electronic messages and eyewitness testimony,” per a redacted copy of the findings obtained by the Tribune in a public records request.
The district sent letters informing both Dominguez and the woman of the inspector general’s decision to close the case last week. But the redacted report gives the most details yet about the investigation.
“Based on (the woman’s) account, there were no identified witnesses to either incident, and it would be extremely difficult to sufficiently corroborate two brief and unwitnessed interactions that occurred in 2017,” the OIG wrote. “The passage of time has always been an issue in this case.”
The report also says the inspector general found “there is insufficient evidence that — as alleged — Dominguez’s one-time question to (her) about her dating preferences or his single instance of physically boundary-crossing contact constituted ‘sexual advance[s]’ or ‘conduct of a sexual nature.’”
Dominguez has denied the allegations. He said in a statement after Wagenknecht’s office announced last Wednesday that there was “no actionable finding” against him that he wants to move on to debating voter issues about schools.
“From the beginning, I have made it clear that any allegation should be taken with the utmost sincerity, care, due process and accountability,” he wrote. “And with this process completed, I will continue this campaign for the schools our students deserve.”
He did not offer additional comment after the full report came out Friday.
But an attorney for Dominguez, Rima Kapitan, said in a Monday statement to the Tribune that “the report shows that the investigation was thorough, that Mr. Dominguez acted with integrity and fully cooperated throughout, and that the Office of the Inspector General concluded once again that the allegations were not substantiated.”
More Top Picks Air Conditioner
The woman released a statement Friday evening renewing her call for an outside investigation.
“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. This process has been deeply flawed from the beginning.”
The allegations around Dominguez stem from his time at The Resurrection Project, a nonprofit focused on immigrant rights where he worked and she volunteered in the summer of 2017. An internal statement from a Resurrection Project staffer in 2018 alleged that during the prior year, the then-17-year-old told her Dominguez made the teen uncomfortable when she participated in the summer program.
The OIG notes although the woman’s account was “realistic and not outlandish, and she articulately described the emotional distress she felt,” the allegations she made to inspector general’s office investigators last month when the office reopened the case were “narrower in scope” than what was described in the nonprofit’s records from 2018.
The report also says “there is no evidence that either incident substantially interfered with her participation in the summer program.”
The Inspector General first opened the case in 2021 and originally closed it in June, weeks after Dominguez, most recently deputy political director for the Chicago Teachers Union, launched his campaign for school board president.
The office reopened the investigation after the woman reached out in September to request her statement be taken, saying she did not know the case existed until getting an outcome letter that month. The OIG also re-interviewed Dominguez.
The summary findings released Friday say the case went unresolved for years due to “limited resources,” and that the OIG did try to reach the woman or her parents a dozen times in 2022, apparently leaving three voicemails each for her parents and a direct message to the woman’s Instagram and Facebook accounts.
The report says Dominguez contacted the OIG on July 9 to ask about the case’s status and was informed of the “not substantiated” finding the next day. CPS’ Office of Student Protections and Title IX (OSP) mailed an outcome letter to him on Sept. 8 and to the woman on Sept. 9, according to the summary report.
The inspector general also references a 2018 Resurrection Project report when outlining concerns over the passage of time, saying “nearly a year and a half passed before TRP’s human resources department collected written statements related to this matter. Several more years passed before the OIG became aware of the matter.”
In its earlier investigation that concluded in June, the OIG says it interviewed Dominguez in 2022 and obtained records from The Resurrection Project’s human resources department, which in 2018 “gathered statements from several involved parties, but not” the teenager.
The findings from Friday include the woman’s reaction to how The Resurrection Project’s “records indicate that on multiple occasions, she told an adult that she did not want to proceed with the complaint against Dominguez.”
The woman said two of the nonprofit’s staffers whom she confided in that summer “had each asked her how she wanted to proceed, but she felt that they, as the adults, should have known what to do,” according to the summary findings.
“(She) noted that TRP staff never gave her a formal opportunity to discuss her experiences, and she never refused to discuss the matter with anyone,” the report says. “At the time, she struggled to process and appropriately describe her experiences with Dominguez.”
The nonprofit has declined to comment on what steps it took to address the allegations. A spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
The district informed Dominguez and the woman last Wednesday there was “no actionable finding” against him, prompting her lawyer, Vincent Arrigo, to send a letter to CPS CEO Macquline King and the school board demanding an independent review. The demand was echoed by a group of 17 aldermen, often opposed to the CTU, who last week requested Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul conduct a separate investigation due to concerns of “political pressure.”
Raoul’s office did not respond to requests for comment. Wagenknecht responded in a statement denying any external influence.
“The OIG initially investigated this matter long before the current campaign for Board President,” he wrote. “The investigation was conducted in accordance with the OIG’s standard practices and procedures. In no way was this investigation rushed or concluded prematurely.”
The Inspector General’s sexual misconduct unit, created in response to the Tribune’s 2018 “Betrayed” series, investigates hundreds of complaints each year. Wagenknecht wrote that the office has shown its “robust independence through (its) numerous public corruption investigations over the years.”