Opinion ID: 8414537
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: McGreal’s Speech as a Motivating Factor

Text: To show that his firing was motivated by his protected speech, McGreal must first demonstrate that the defendants knew of the protected speech. “Allegedly protected speech cannot be proven to motivate retaliation, if there is no evidence that the defendants knew of the protected speech.” Stagman v. Ryan, 176 F.3d 986, 999-1000 (7th Cir. 1999) (citation omitted). McGreal argues that the defendants retaliated against him because of his speech at the November 2 board meeting. To survive summary judgment, he thus has to provide admissible evidence that the defendants were aware of that speech before they initiated disciplinary proceedings. McGreal has not met his burden: none of the “many documents” he references actually show that the defendants were aware of his speech. (Appellant’s Br. at 29.) The first few documents McGreal cites — a memorandum written by the village manager to “All Village Employees” (R. 220-15 at 24) and an email from the union president to the union’s members (R. 220-15 at 25) — were actually created weeks before the November 2 meeting and thus could not have provided the defendants with knowledge of who attended the meeting or what the meeting’s attendees discussed. Other documents McGreal references — a letter from the village manager to the union president (R. 220-17 at 20) and -an email from the union president to the village manager (R. 220-16 at 14) — do not address the November 2 meeting at all. The deposition testimony that McGreal cites also doesn’t show that the defendants knew of McGreal’s speech. Although Chief McCarthy admitted during his deposition that he was aware that McGreal had met with the mayor and other board members on .October 26, McCarthy did not testify that he knew McGreal attended or engaged in protected speech at the November 2 meeting. (R. 220-9 at 26.) Because McGreal has provided no evidence that the defendants knew of his speech, he has failed to show that his speech was a motivating factor of the defendants’ decision to fire him. Stagman, 176 F.3d at 999-1000.