Duvalt

MEMORANDUM **

Scott R. DuValt appeals the district court’s order granting summary judgment in favor of Custer County and Sheriff Deputy Scott S. Taggart in DuValt’s 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action. 1 DuValt alleges defendants caused his personal property to be lost or stolen after several deputies, including Taggart, impounded and searched his car and a trailer in which he was living. We affirm the district court’s order granting summary judgment in favor of Taggart and the County.

Qualified immunity serves as a defense to § 1983 claims for government officials “insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known.” Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818 , 102 S.Ct. 2727 , 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982). To determine whether a public official is entitled to qualified immunity we apply the two-part test established by Saucier v. Katz, 533 U.S. 194 , 121 S.Ct. 2151 , 150 L.Ed.2d 272 (2001).

It is well-settled that it is a violation of an individual’s constitutional rights for the state to deprive an individual of a “constitutionally protected interest in life, liberty, or property ... without due process of…