A lawsuit filed against the village of Riverside and one of its firefighters by former Fire Chief Kevin Mulligan is scheduled to go to trial in June 2013, according to a plan adopted by Judge Ronald A. Guzman on Feb. 15.
The plan, filed jointly in the U.S. District Court in Chicago by lawyers for both Mulligan and the village, lays out the schedule for completing discovery and filing depositions.
According to the plan, both sides will depose about 20 people who will be questioned about events taking place over “an expansive period of time.”
Because of the number of witnesses and the lengthy time period, both sides arrived at a timetable prior to sending the matter to trial in a little more than a year.
Initial disclosures, including the names and contact information of people likely to be deposed by attorneys, are due to the court by March 20.
Fact discovery will be completed by Jan. 20, 2013 and expert discovery is to be completed by Feb. 25, 2013. The final date for filing dispositive motions, such as a motion to dismiss or for summary judgment, will be March 25, 2013
The trial is slated to begin June 15, 2013 and is expected to take seven days, including jury selection, according to the plan.
Mulligan is suing the village of Riverside, asking damages of more than $100,000, claiming he was harassed and wrongfully terminated from his job as fire chief in April 2011.
The former chief contends the village violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by firing him because they believed him to be alcohol dependent, even though the village board concluded that he never drank on the job. Three separate evaluations also concluded that Mulligan was not alcohol dependent, the suit states.
Mulligan is also claiming he was harassed by his former deputy fire chief, Matthew Buckley, who made repeated complaints to village management about Mulligan’s alleged behavior and, according to the lawsuit, hired a private investigator to follow Mulligan and document his on-duty activities on video.
Buckley later requested a demotion from his position as deputy chief due to his inability to work with Mulligan. Mulligan contends in his lawsuit that Buckley’s actions were motivated by a desire to “advance his own career.”
Buckley remained on the fire department as a captain until December 2011 when new Fire Chief Spencer Kimura once again named him deputy chief.
