Opinion ID: 2973336
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: FBI Position

Text: 13 The undisputed facts are that, after Jones testified in the Madrigal matter, he applied for an undercover position with the FBI and he did not get the job. The district court found that representatives from the State Police and the FBI made the hiring decision and Dobson had nothing to do with it, and that this fact was fatal to Jones’s claim. Jones contends that Dobson had told the interviewers that he wanted Sergeant Mathis hired and they simply did his bidding. Jones presented no specific evidence to support his belief that Dobson influenced the hiring decision, but even if Jones’s suspicions are correct, he has offered no evidence whatsoever that Dobson was motivated in any way by Jones’s participation in the Madrigal matter. Because temporal proximity alone is not sufficient to show causation, see Cushman-Lagerstrom, 72 Fed. Appx. at 332, Jones has failed to establish the causation element of a prima facie case of retaliation with regard to his failure to obtain the FBI position. 4. Posting Tobacco Sting Assignments and Hostile Environment We addressed earlier with regard to the WPA claims Jones’s failure to establish the causation element relative to his claim that he was denied the opportunity to participate in the tobacco sting operation. The analysis here is identical, and yields the identical result. And Jones’s hostile environment claim fails here, as it did in the context of his WPA claim, because the spreading of rumors is simply not sufficient to demonstrate a hostile work environment. We therefore conclude that the district court correctly granted summary judgment to the defendants on Jones’s claims of retaliation.