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Just weeks before the Nov. 3 election, Hilario Dominguez, a candidate for Chicago school board president, is facing fallout after the Chicago Public Schools internal watchdog reopened an investigation into an almost decade-old allegation involving his time at a Pilsen nonprofit.
This summer, the district’s Office of the Inspector General closed an inquiry into a former nonprofit staffer’s report that a student involved with The Resurrection Project said Dominguez had made inappropriate comments to her, finding insufficient evidence to substantiate the allegation. But the watchdog reopened the inquiry in recent weeks after the office was contacted by that former student, according to correspondence she shared with Chalkbeat and Block Club.
The watchdog confirmed the reopening of the investigation to Chalkbeat and Block Club but declined to comment further. The Chicago Tribune first reported the development Friday.
In an interview, the former student alleged Dominguez asked her what kind of men she likes and once lifted her off the ground, pressing her body against his in a hug in 2017, when she was a 17-year-old summer program participant at The Resurrection Project and Dominguez worked as a community organizer there. The former student, who asked to remain anonymous to protect her privacy, said that made her feel uncomfortable.
Dominguez denied the allegations and argued they were politically motivated, first emerging during his campaign for alderman in late 2018 and 2019.
“In every investigation and process, I have already answered this and the conclusion has been the same: unfounded, unsubstantiated,” Dominguez said in a Monday statement.
In an Instagram video over the weekend, he argued the allegations were a bid to sabotage his campaign for alderman by another candidate in that race and were revived this summer to sink his school board candidacy. He vowed to cooperate fully with the restarted investigation and clear his name.
Dominguez, 33, a former CPS teacher and former Chicago Teachers Union deputy political director, is the union-backed candidate in the three-way race to lead Chicago’s first fully elected school board.
At a Tuesday evening press conference, Dominguez said he sat down for an interview with the CPS watchdog that day.
“As I’ve always said, I am ready to be accountable, and I am ready to participate in every investigation,” said Dominguez, who did not take any questions.
The reopening of the case is now a factor in the high-stakes race for board president, in which Dominguez faces former CPS principal and current board member Jessica Biggs and attorney Victor Henderson. At least two school board candidates in other races called on Dominguez to drop out over the weekend.
In a letter to members this weekend, the union accused the CPS watchdog of violating a policy against commenting on open cases. The union said it will work to ensure due process for Dominguez, so the inquiry “does not get rushed to judgement in the press or corrupted by the politics of the moment.”
The former student also criticized the CPS watchdog in an interview with Chalkbeat and Block Club, saying she only found out about the investigation after it was closed this summer.
In an email obtained by Chalkbeat and Block Club, Christina Guarisco, an assistant inspector general in the watchdog’s Sexual Allegations Unit, told Dominguez that the office had issued a June 26 “Not Substantiated” report. According to the email, Guarisco was responding to an inquiry from Dominguez the previous day.
“The OIG did not find sufficient evidence that you engaged in sexual misconduct toward that student or any other student or minor,” Guarisco wrote.
The former student said she learned of the inquiry — apparently sparked by the complaint from the former nonprofit staffer — when her family received a letter from the CPS Office of Student Protections dated Sept. 9 informing them it had been closed.
The former student said she contacted the watchdog the day after opening the letter, and a CPS watchdog staffer told her last month the inquiry was launched in 2021. She said OIG staffers later showed her evidence the office had made multiple attempts to contact her in 2022, but she said she had not been aware of the outreach.
“I feel very angry,” she said. “How dare you not only start an investigation but conclude it without me?”
The Inspector General did not say how the inquiry started, but in early 2021, a former Local School Council member sent a copy of the Resurrection Project complaint to Dominguez and CPS officials, demanding an explanation, according to an email reviewed by Block Club and Chalkbeat.
It is not clear why the inquiry might have lasted years and concluded this summer. But the watchdog has said previously that its sexual misconduct unit — formed in 2018 after a Chicago Tribune series about sexual misconduct in CPS — has opened thousands of cases and faces a significant backlog. It’s not uncommon for the watchdog to launch misconduct investigations based on third-party tips and conduct them even if alleged victims cannot be reached or do not cooperate.
The former student sat for an interview with three OIG staffers on Sept. 22, she said.
Allegations emerged amid Dominguez’ alderman bid
In a 2018 internal Resurrection Project complaint filed by a staff member at the time and later obtained by Chalkbeat and Block Club, the staff member wrote that a participant in a 2017 summer program had approached her, alleging Dominguez had asked about her dating life, commented on her physical appearance, and offered her rides home. The staff member told her supervisors, and it was her understanding that a higher-up at the nonprofit had spoken with Dominguez, according to the complaint.
But the issue resurfaced during the summer of 2018, around the time Dominguez launched a campaign for 25th Ward alderman. The staffer said she had run into the former summer program participant at a Resurrection Project event. Afterwards, according to the complaint, the former staffer was approached by a leader at the nonprofit to assure her he had spoken with Dominguez about that situation, and that it wasn’t “the first time he had to have a talk with Hilario about his behavior around young women.”
At that point, she decided to file a written complaint, she wrote.
In the interview with Chalkbeat and Block Club, the former student alleged she recalled two experiences with Dominguez she said made her uncomfortable. Neither was included in the staffer complaint. On one occasion, the former student claimed she was delivering supplies with Dominguez in his car when he asked her what kinds of guys she likes to date.
“He was a figure of authority that I trusted … and that was really alarming,” she said. “It shifted the entire mood for me.”
Later, she said she ran into him in a hallway at the nonprofit and he allegedly embraced her by the waist, lifted her off the ground and spun her.
“I had never experienced a grown man ever pressing my body against his like that,” she said in the interview. “I felt very, very uncomfortable.”
Another former Resurrection Project staff member who asked for anonymity for privacy concerns said they recall learning about the concerns brought up by the student and telling another staff member that the situation needed to be reported.
The former CPS student said after she spoke with the nonprofit staffer who wrote the internal complaint, any concerning behavior stopped.
But during the 25th Ward aldermanic race, a social media post about her allegations was circulated without naming her. As the allegations spread amid the race, she said she felt distraught because she had shared her experience in confidence.
The former student said she decided to share her experience after learning of the CPS watchdog investigation.
“My priority is sharing my experience and from my narrative,” she said.
In his weekend Instagram video, Dominguez said he had been prepared to confront the allegations head on.
“I knew what big money-backed opponents would do when they want to stop your campaign, and I’ve been ready for it,” he said.
At the Tuesday evening press conference, he accused Aida Flores, a CPS assistant principal who ran against him for alderman in 2019 and is running again this fall, of trying to “weaponize these rumors.”
Flores did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Resurrection Project declined to answer questions about Dominguez, saying that the only information it could provide are his dates of employment and his last position held.
Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org. Francia Garcia Hernandez covers Pilsen, Little Village and Back of the Yards for Block Club Chicago. Contact Francia at francia@blockclubchi.org.
