Rutledge v. Ill. Dept, of Children & Family Servs., No. 15-1028 (7th Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CasePlaintiff, a Vietnam veteran, was diagnosed with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression. In 2004 the VA declared him 100 percent disabled. Nonetheless, the Illinois Department of Human Services hired him that year as a “certified nurse assistant residential case worker” and assigned him to a residential facility. Two years later, he claims, a resident and members of the resident’s family assaulted plaintiff with an iron pipe and baseball bats. The Department suspended him on the complaint of the resident’s family and allegedly subsequently discharged him on the basis of an investigation by the Department of Children and Family Services that resulted in a preliminary finding that he had committed child abuse and neglect. The finding of child abuse was retracted. In 2014 he sued, alleging violation of the Rehabilitation Act, 29 U.S.C. 794(a), which forbids discrimination on the basis of disability by agencies that receive federal money. The district judge dismissed, finding that plaintiff failed to state a claim and that his claim was untimely. The Department was not served with process. The Seventh Circuit reversed in part, noting that it is not clear when plaintiff was discharged and that it can take a long time for a discharge to ripen.
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