PUBLISHED

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

No. 22-1287

PETER J. MASSARO

Plaintiff - Appellant

v.

FAIRFAX COUNTY

Defendant - Appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, at Alexandria. T. S. Ellis, III, Senior District Judge. (1:20−cv−00929−TSE−TCB)

Argued: January 23, 2024 Decided: March 19, 2024

Before WILKINSON, QUATTLEBAUM, and RUSHING, Circuit Judges.

Affirmed by published opinion. Judge Wilkinson wrote the opinion, in which Judge Quattlebaum and Judge Rushing joined.

ARGUED: Daniel Scott Crowley, HANNON LAW GROUP, LLP, Washington, D.C., for Appellant. Emily Kathryn Blake, MCGAVIN, BOYCE, BARDOT, THORSON & KATZ, P.C., Fairfax, Virginia, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Heather K. Bardot, MCGAVIN, BOYCE, BARDOT, THORSON & KATZ, P.C., Fairfax, Virginia, for Appellee. USCA4 Appeal: 22-1287 Doc: 59 Filed: 03/19/2024 Pg: 2 of 22

WILKINSON, Circuit Judge:

Plaintiff Peter Massaro contends that his employer, the Fairfax County Police

Department, transferred him to an inferior posting in retaliation for his filing a complaint

alleging discrimination in departmental promotion practices. He sued Fairfax County,

seeking relief under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Age Discrimination in

Employment Act, and 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The district court granted summary judgment to

Fairfax County on all claims and dismissed the case, holding that Massaro failed to

establish the requisite causal connection between his initial discrimination complaint and

his subsequent job transfer. For the following reasons, we affirm the judgment of the

district court.

I.

A.

Because Fairfax County’s motion for summary judgment was granted below, we

recount the facts and all justifiable inferences arising from them in the light most favorable

to Massaro on appeal. Libertarian Party of Va. v. Judd, 718 F.3d 308, 312 (4th Cir. 2013).

Massaro has been a police officer with the Fairfax County Police Department since 1996.

From February 2018 to May 2020, Massaro was the supervisor of the firearms training

range at the Fairfax Criminal Justice Academy (the “Academy”). There, Massaro “was

responsible for training the entire Police Department, the Fairfax County Sheriff’s

Department, and the police departments for the towns of Vienna and Herndon, in the use

of firearms.” J.A. 9. By all accounts, his role was a significant one that came with a great

deal of leadership responsibility.

2 USCA4 Appeal: 22-1287 Doc: 59 Filed: 03/19/2024 Pg: 3 of 22

Massaro, however, was frustrated. Twice he was passed over for promotion to First

Lieutenant, even though he had passed the requisite examination and believed he was the

most qualified candidate for the position. He was not selected in April 2018, nor was he

selected in September 2018. To Massaro’s chagrin, two women he saw as less qualified

than him were promoted to First Lieutenant during these cycles: Marisa Kuhar and Loriann

LaBarca.

Massaro took issue with Kuhar’s promotion first. He believed that she lacked the

requisite educational requirements and suspected that something nefarious was afoot in the

Department. On September 26, 2018, Massaro filed a discrimination compl

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