Chicago Park District lifeguard supervisor admits sexually abusing teenage girl at Jefferson Park pool

A longtime lifeguard for the Chicago Park District has pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a teenage employee he supervised in 2018 at a public pool on the Northwest Side, court records show.

Hector Coz became the second lifeguard supervisor convicted in a sexual misconduct scandal that WBEZ first revealed three years ago, prompting the resignations of the park district’s longtime chief executive and board president in 2021.

Coz — who was 22 at the time he committed the crime at the Jefferson Park pool — pleaded guilty in April to aggravated criminal sexual abuse, records show. He was sentenced to two years of probation and lifetime sex-offender registration.

The survivor of Coz’s abuse said that punishment was light compared to what Coz “truly deserves.” She watched Coz’s sentencing on Zoom and submitted a written statement that the prosecutor read into the record, according to a transcript of the hearing.

“I’m five years deep into this case to only give you a slap on the wrist for rape,” wrote the survivor, who was 17 and a seasonal parks employee at the time of the abuse. “May God have mercy on any young woman who is currently in or enters the life of Mr. Coz. This man is not to be trusted.

“He is the bad man we warn our children about. Everyone should know exactly who he is. They should know I’m not the only victim of Hector Coz, and I truly believe I won’t be the last.”

According to prosecutors, Coz bolted the door of the girls locker room at the Jefferson Park pool, pinned the teenage girl against the lockers and penetrated her with his hands, as she “told the defendant to stop multiple times.”

The survivor concluded her statement by address Coz directly: “Save everyone the trouble, Hector. You know exactly how sick you are, and you know the punishment you deserve.”

At the hearing April 5, records show, another female former lifeguard who also said she was “one of the victims of Hector Coz” read a written statement in which she said she “took too long to tell anyone” and wasn't allowed to press charges against Coz. Authorities have said the statute of limitations had expired.

The woman said she delayed in reporting Coz “out of fear.”

According to the transcript, she testified, “I did not feel that I would get the support that I needed. I did not have the courage to initiate the investigation at work, and he later resigned.”

She said that, when she told someone more than a year later what had happened, she was accused of lying and then “held onto that secret for many, many years.”

Finally, the woman said, she “came to learn that other people have been victims of Hector Coz as well. And this made me feel awful knowing if I had spoken up sooner, I could’ve prevented him from victimizing more people.”

Records show the woman accused Coz of attacking her in 2016 at the Portage Park pool.

Coz was charged by Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s office in May 2022. He declined to speak at his sentencing.

In court, his lawyer Jon Erickson said Coz had a job, enrolled in an online college and has a 1-year-old child with his fiancee.

“He is a family man, judge,” Erickson said. “Over the course of this case, I’ve seen an evolution in Mr. Coz and seen him develop from his initial denial to someone that stands before your honor accepting responsibility for his conduct and wishes to express his deep regret to both victims.

“I think he has a better understanding of his relationship to women, and he has expressed explicitly to me that he looks forward to the sex offender education.”

Now 28 , Coz appears on the state’s sex-offender registry.

Coz was placed on the park district’s “do not rehire” list. But the Chicago Police Department began to investigate him only after WBEZ reported on the internal park district investigation in the spring of 2021 — and after his accusers spoke to law enforcement that summer, records show.

Three years ago, when approached by a reporter at home, Coz said only that the accusations he faced were false.

A Chicago Park District spokesperson said Tuesday that the agency “supports all processes that hold wrongdoers accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”

Another former Chicago lifeguard supervisor, Mauricio Ramirez, pleaded guilty in 2022 to two felony counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse. Ramirez, who worked at Humboldt Park, was sentenced to three years of probation, 40 hours of community service, electronic monitoring and lifetime sex-offender registration.