The Seventh Circuit held that the record showed that the employee, working as security guard, solidly slapped with his open palm an autistic patient who had been kicking a member of defendant's staff, and that he was later fired after a hospital committee had found that the employee's use of force was not appropriate. Furthermore, the employee failed to present evidence of any similarly-situated co-worker whom the employer had found to have committed a similar offense and who had received more favorable treatment.
While the employee pointed out four incidents to support an inference of race discrimination (including the fact that the employer's representative gave a factually incorrect response to the EEOC), those incidences do not meet plaintiff's burden that the employer treated a similarly situated employee outside the plaintiff’s protected class better.