Opinion ID: 765124
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Holly

Text: 25 The focus of Holly's complaint is the revelation of some private information in the report. The transcript of her investigative interview was reproduced in full in the report, and touched on a traumatic childhood incident. See J.A. at 306 (Holly Int. at 68). There were also questions concerning her personal relationships with members of the fire department. See J.A. at 928-29 (Holly Int. at 92-93). She was questioned in detail about entries she made in a date book, and asked to decipher initials and explain items she had crossed out. Pages of the date book were reprinted in the report. Over 150 pages of the report are transcripts of interviews with Holly, many rather mundane but a few revealing personal information. 26 Whether these revelations, if made intentionally to punish Holly, are sufficient to state a claim for First Amendment retaliation is a close question. The questions posed to her about office affairs were tangentially related to charges of sexual harassment against one of the fire department members. 4 See Hughes v. City of North Olmsted, 93 F.3d 238 (6th Cir. 1996) (questions posed to officer and his wife about intimate sexual matters reasonable in light of charges of sexual harassment against officer; constitutional rights to privacy and free association not so clearlyestablished that officials would realize their actions were violating the law). Regardless of the propriety of the questions, however, there seemingly was no reason to make her revealing personal statements public in the report. As explained earlier, the revelation of embarrassing details that are irrelevant to the investigation at hand for purposes of retaliation is improper, and may constitute a First Amendment retaliation claim. 27 Under the facts of this case, however, we are constrained to hold that Holly has not pleaded injury sufficient to withstand a motion for summary judgment by the defendants. Without minimizing any embarrassment she may have suffered, the revelations at issue in this case do not rise to the level of those in Bloch or Barrett. The traumatic childhood incident was not the focus of the report, or of the investigation, or even of the questions being asked in the interview. Holly volunteered it by way of analogy as an aside during a legitimate line of questioning, the full text of which was contained in the 690-page report. There was no reference to that sensitive information in the introduction or overview sections of the report or in the video overview. In Bloch, humiliating details of the plaintiff's rape were released to punish her for criticizing the officer who made them. In Barrett, false accusations were lodged by a Judge against a lawyer who criticized her. The damaging statements came from the mouths of the defendants and were the whole of or the focus of the public communication, so their retaliatory nature was clear. The same is not true in this case. 28 Moreover, neither the complaint nor the briefs allege concrete injuries suffered by Holly as a result of these revelations. She offers only generalized statements about the effect on her character and reputation, about being held up to ridicule, contempt, shame, and disgrace, and the about the effect on her respectability, comfort, and position in society. Nowhere does she attempt to concretize her personal injury. Without anything more specific, we cannot say that this meets the constitutional threshold required for her claim of First Amendment retaliation to proceed. 29 In sum, neither plaintiff in this case has alleged an adverse action sufficient to sustain a claim of First Amendment retaliation, and therefore, the district court improperly denied qualified immunity to the individual defendants.