Opinion ID: 3004567
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Events After June 25, 2010

Text: After the meeting, neither Graber nor any other union member filed a grievance concerning the mandatory overtime staffing at the park. However, Graber began to withdraw from union activities, had trouble focusing, and called in sick to work more frequently. Graber said he was afraid to perform his job responsibilities because he felt the Sheriff’s Office was “trying to find fault” in his work so that they could discipline or terminate him. In November 2010, Graber received a seven‐day suspension as a result of an investigation that started in December 2009. The investigation arose because Graber signed a subordinate’s deficient memo book. Other sergeants signed the same memo book, but only Graber was subject to an investigation. In May 2011, Graber testified about the suspension in a hearing before No. 13‐2165 9 the Wisconsin Employment Relations Committee and said he was “not [] disciplined for [his] conduct as a union official for anything about O’Donnell Park.” The arbitrator overturned Graber’s suspension, finding that the County lacked just cause to discipline him. Prior to the O’Donnell Park incident, Graber had received three other suspensions from Clarke that were overturned. Graber asserts that he had worked for four Sheriffs before Clarke and had never been disciplined by any of them. In November 2011, Graber brought suit against Clarke and the County of Milwaukee. He argued that Clarke violated his First Amendment rights under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 when he retaliated against Graber for his association and speech during their meeting on June 25, 2010. Additionally, Graber argued that Clarke infringed upon his rights to engage in political activity and retaliated against him in violation of the Wisconsin Law Enforcement Officer’s Bill of Rights pursuant to Wis. Stat. §§ 164.015 and 164.03. In May 2012, Graber was granted disability retirement at the age of forty‐five, retroactive to July 2011. Graber asserted that his early retirement was because of “on‐the‐job stress caused by Sheriff Clarke.” After a two‐day bench trial, both parties submitted briefs to the court. On May 7, 2013, the district court dismissed Graber’s claims, concluding that his First Amendment rights were not violated and that he did not establish a violation of the Wiscon‐ sin Law Enforcement Officer’s Bill of Rights. The court reasoned that while Graber’s conversation with Mascari and Meverden was protected under the First Amendment, his brief discussion with Nyklewicz, which led to his meeting with Clarke, was not. Additionally, the court held that Graber did not present evidence that he engaged in a political activity and 10 No. 13‐2165 therefore could not be retaliated against for engaging in such activity. Graber timely appealed to this court.