Hunter filed a motion for summary judgment in his Title VII case against the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, claiming his termination was discriminatory and retaliatory. Hunter was fired in August 2018 after filing an EEOC race discrimination complaint in 2014 against DOT's Division of State Patrol.
According to Hunter's motion, he received satisfactory performance reviews from 2007 to 2014. After filing his discrimination complaint naming DSP Superintendent Carnahan, Hunter claims he received his first negative review in March 2015. Following dismissal of the EEOC case in late 2016, Hunter alleges Carnahan placed him on a performance improvement plan in April 2017.
Hunter argues the PIP was pretextual. He claims DOT data showed he ranked second highest in OWI enforcement and criminal enforcement among his peers when he was terminated for allegedly being the lowest performing trooper. Hunter alleges Carnahan subjected him to continuous squad camera monitoring for over a year and secretly monitored his computer but found no work rule violations.
The motion includes what Hunter characterizes as direct evidence of discrimination. Hunter claims Carnahan admitted in writing in his termination report that Hunter was terminated partly because Carnahan believed Hunter had "retaliatory/discriminatory command staff." Hunter also argues Carnahan funneled negative employment actions through an African American sergeant while denying that sergeant decision-making authority routinely given to white sergeants.
Hunter contends this represents the first non-work-rule termination of a non-probationary DSP trooper in the department's history.