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Otto May, Jr v. Chrysler Group, LLC

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ARGUED APRIL 13, 2012

Before BAUER, KANNE, and TINDER, Circuit Judges.

More than fifty times between 2002 and 2005, Otto May, Jr., a pipefitter at Chrysler’s Belvedere Assembly Plant, was the target of racist, xeno- phobic, homophobic, and anti-Semitic graffiti that ap- peared in and around the plant’s paint department. Examples, unfortunately, are necessary to show how disturbingly vile and aggressive the messages were: “Otto Cuban Jew fag die,” “Otto Cuban good Jew is a dead Jew,” “death to the Cuban Jew,” “fuck Otto Cuban Jew fag,” “get the Cuban Jew,” and “fuck Otto Cuban Jew nigger lover.” In addition to the graffiti, more than half-a-dozen times May found death-threat notes in his toolbox. Dif- ferent medium, same themes: “Otto Cuban Jew muther fucker bastard get our message your family is not safe we will get you good Jew is a dead Jew say hi to your hore wife death to the jews heil hitler [swastika].” The harassment was not confined to prose. May had his bike and car tires punctured, sugar was poured in the gas tanks of two of his cars, and, most bizarrely, a dead bird wrapped in toilet paper to look like a Ku KluX Klansman (complete with pointy hat) was placed in a vise at one of May’s work stations. May contacted the local police, the FBI, the Anti-Defamation League, and, of course, complained to Chrysler. And Chrysler re-sponded: The head of human resources at the Belvedere plant met with two groups of skilled tradesmen (like May) and reminded them that harassment was unac- ceptable, a procedure was implemented to document the harassment, efforts were made to discover who was at the plant during the periods when the incidents likely occurred, and a handwriting analyst was retained and used. Unfortunately, the harasser or harassers were never caught.

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