Cole v. Bd. of Trustees of Northern Illinois Univ.

Dist. Ct. did not err in granting defendant-employer’s motion for summary judgment in Title VII and section 1983 equal protection action alleging that defendant subjected him to racial harassment arising out of placement of hangman’s noose in plaintiff’s work space and race discrimination when it demoted him. With respect to harassment claim, plaintiff failed to show that defendant was liable for being negligent either in discovering noose or in remedying it when it turned investigation of matter over to police. Moreover, while police investigation failed to identify culprit and defendant otherwise took no other measure to remedy situation, turning matter over to police was sufficient to absolve defendant from liability, where plaintiff told defendant’s management that he viewed incident as joke. Also, plaintiff failed to establish any race discrimination claim, where plaintiff failed to present evidence that race played factor in demotion, and where white co-worker was demoted at same time under similar circumstances. Plaintiff also did not establish viable retaliation claim, where subject matter of plaintiff’s ethics complaint that formed basis of retaliation claim did not pertain to unlawful employment practice under Title VII.