Prosecutors: Dad kept teen chained to dryer

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A south suburban teenager was routinely chained to a dryer and viciously beaten by his father and his father’s girlfriend with everything from bamboo scratchers to yardsticks to a broken ax handle, Cook County prosecutors allege.

Hugo Dominguez, 38, of Glenwood, admitted he kept the 13-year-old boy captive in the laundry room most nights while he and his live-in girlfriend, Mary Ramirez, slept, authorities said.

The couple routinely unchained the Brookwood Junior High School student in the morning and kept him in the garage before school, court records indicated.

The boy told investigators that Dominguez and Ramirez, 38, often hit him with many objects, including wooden ax handles, yardsticks, bamboo scratchers, belts and rulers that had been taped together.

Dominguez also recently stabbed his son with a knife, prosecutors said.

Authorities began investigating the couple after school officials called to report the alleged abuse Tuesday.

The teenager currently has a large laceration to his left elbow, bruising on a large portion of both arms and lash marks on his lower and middle back and lower legs, prosecutors said.

Dominguez was ordered held in lieu of $250,000 bail Friday for aggravated domestic battery, according to state’s attorney’s office spokeswoman Tandra Simonton. Ramirez was ordered held in lieu of $100,000 bail for unlawful restraint.