182730P.pdf   08/08/2019  David Mogard  v.  City of Milbank
   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:  18-2730
   U.S. District Court for the District of South Dakota - Aberdeen   
   [PUBLISHED] [Benton, Author, with Gruender and Grasz, Circuit Judges] 
   Civil case - Civil rights. Plaintiff, a former city police officer, 
   alleged he was terminated without due process and in retaliation for his 
   exercise of his First Amendment right to publicly raise safety concerns 
   about the city's patrol vehicles; the district court denied the 
   defendants' motion for summary judgment based on qualified immunity and 
   defendants appeal. Held, even if plaintiff were terminated in retaliation 
   for his speech, the defendants did not violate a clearly established 
   statutory or constitutional right of which reasonable people would have 
   known; the defendants could reasonably conclude that plaintiff was 
   speaking solely as an aggrieved police officer and without constitutional 
   protection; to establish deprivation of a liberty interest, plaintiff had 
   to show he was stigmatized by the stated reasons for his discharge and 
   that the statements were made public; plaintiff failed to make such 
   showings, and he cannot demonstrate a constitutional violation; while this 
   court's ruling that plaintiff has not demonstrated deprivation of a 
   property or liberty interest disposed of his related claims against the 
   city, the court's ruling does not necessarily resolve the city's liability 
   on his retaliation claim. Reversed in part, affirmed in part and remanded 
   for further proceedings.