CHICAGO — A Lakeview man on pretrial release for a case in which he is accused of sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl has gone missing after removing his electronic monitoring bracelet. The Cook County Sheriff’s Office said on Friday that Jorge Wenceslao Mondragon-Bahena, 48, removed his ankle monitor in March 2023 and has not been seen since.
Mondragon-Bahena was working as a cook at a Wrigleyville establishment at the time of his arrest and lived in the 3500 block of North Southport, according to court records.
On October 6, 2022, prosecutors charged Mondragon-Bahena with predatory criminal sexual assault of a child in connection with an assault that allegedly occurred in August 2015.
Mondragon-Bahena and the victim were together in a residence when he pulled her onto a bed, removed her clothing, and lowered his shorts, prosecutors said during Mondragon-Bahena’s initial bail hearing. He proceeded to perform a sex act on the girl but stopped when the child’s mother, who had been running errands, returned home earlier than expected, prosecutors alleged.
The woman allegedly walked in on the incident and found her daughter with no pants on and Mondragon-Bahena naked. She immediately kicked Mondragon-Bahena out, took her daughter to a hospital, and filed a report with Chicago police. Mondragon-Bahena allegedly contacted the child’s mother repeatedly to apologize and ask for forgiveness.
Prosecutors said DNA testing found male saliva on the girl’s undergarment, and the material was scheduled to undergo further testing after investigators secured a sample of Mondragon-Bahena’s DNA. Mondragon-Bahena
Prosecutors said the case stalled because Mondragon-Bahena’s whereabouts had been unknown for several years. Investigators arrested him in October 2022 after learning that he was working as a cook at the Wrigleyville venue.
Prosecutors did not ask Judge Susana Ortiz to hold Mondragon-Bahena without bail during his initial court appearance. Judges in Illinois were not authorized to hold defendants without bail under the cash bail system unless prosecutors requested it first. Instead, Ortiz ordered Mondragon-Bahena to pay a $10,000 cash bail deposit and go on electronic monitoring. He was released on those conditions within days.
About six months later, on March 11, 2023, the sheriff’s office received a “strap tamper alert” from Mondragon-Bahena’s ankle monitor, indicating that someone may have been trying to remove the device, according to court filings. Officials declared him AWOL the next day after failing to locate him.
The sheriff’s office said on Friday that it believes Mondragon-Bahena is working at a restaurant in Chicago. The agency said he has been known to use the aliases Oscar Flores and Wenceslao Mondragon.
Anyone who knows his whereabouts can contact the sheriff’s office at 708-865-4700.
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