The present appeal arises from an action brought by Thomas G. Beckham ("Beckham"), a former narcotics detective with the Horry County South Carolina Police Department ("the police department") who was discharged by the defendant, Chief J. Gordon Harris ("Harris"),1 on February 28, 1981 after submitting false information in an incident report and in an affidavit used to procure search and arrest warrants. Beckham asserts that he was discharged without a pre-termination hearing in violation of his right to procedural due process secured by the fourteenth amendment to the United States Constitution.

The case was tried to a jury from November 28, 1983 to December 2, 1983 and on December 8, 1983 judgment was entered awarding Beckham $20,000 in actual and $5,000 in punitive damages for violation of his property interest and $15,000 actual and $10,000 punitive damages for injury to his liberty interest in his continued employment with the police department. The defendants Harris, Dunn, and the former Police Commission members made a motion for a directed verdict at the close of plaintiff's case and a post verdict motion for judgment n.o.v. or, in the alternative, for a new trial. Those motions were denied by the district court as to those defendants. Harris, Dunn, and the Police Commission members timely appealed.

Beckham was hired by the police department as a patrolman in July of 1979. Satisfactory execution of his duties was presumably the reason for his promotion and reassignment two years later to the position of detective in the Narcotics Division. In his new assignment Beckham served as an undercover narcotics officer with another detective, Mike Foreman.

The events which ultimately led to Beckham's discharge took place on January 20-21, 1981. Beckham and Foreman were assigned to investigate reports that illegal drugs were being stored at the Ship's Wheel Seafood Restaurant in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. They commenced a "stake-out" of the restaurant on the night of January 20, 1981. On the morning of January 21, 1981, after an uneventful night's surveillance, Foreman left the scene to procure a search warrant. Beckham remained at the scene and stationed himself in a wooded area behind the restaurant. Upon Foreman's return, the officers executed the search warrant and discovered a large amount of marijuana2 stored in the restaurant's walk-in freezer. The duo requested a back-up and as other officers arrived Foreman began to relate a completely fictitious story. Foreman claimed that, when he returned with the search warrant, he saw a silver van pull into the restaurant's parking lot followed by a black pick-up truck. Foreman claimed he recognized the driver of the van as Jerry High and mentioned that three other subjects, whom he identified only as Cuban nationals, occupied the van as well. The suspects, upon discovery of the officers, supposedly fled the scene at a high rate of speed. Although Beckham was not stationed in the parking lot when the silver van allegedly entered the lot he did not believe his partner's story. Beckham questioned Foreman about his fictitious account and Foreman told him that it was an attempt to "smoke-out" fellow police officers who he believed might be involved in illegal drug smuggling. Foreman told Beckham to go along with the story; Beckham acquiesced.

Later that same day, based upon an informant's tip, police officers were told that three Hispanic men were seen at a local motel and that these persons had participated in the loading or unloading of the marijuana at the Ship's Wheel Restaurant. Upon the officers' arrival at the motel, several individuals of alleged Cuban nationality fled the motel on foot. Later that same day, within a five block area of the motel, Jerry High was observed by police officers in a silver van along with three Hispanic males, all of whom were stopped and taken into custody. The van was transported to the Horry County jail to be searched.

In his affidavit, to be used as a basis for obtaining a warrant to search the seized van, Beckham attested to the fictitious story that Jerry High had been seen at the Ship's Wheel Restaurant on the morning of January 21, 1981.3 Beckham's affidavit also served as a basis for arrest warrants issued for Jerry High, Bobby Gore and three male Hispanics of Cuban nationality.4 An incident report was also prepared by Beckham and Foreman containing the fictitious information.

A preliminary hearing was held on February 26, 1981 in relation to the arrests of High, Gore and the Cuban nationals. Foreman advised Beckham a few minutes before the hearing that he was going to stick with the fabricated story contained in the affidavit and in the incident report. At this point Beckham refused to present perjured testimony. He advised Captain George "Buddy" Fowler, his supervisor, and James O. Dunn, the county solicitor, that the information contained in the affidavit and incident report was false. He also admitted destroying a statement by another police officer which made reference to a set of keys found at the county jail. Beckham did not testify at the preliminary hearing. On February 28, 1981 Beckham was discharged from the Horry County Police Department for furnishing false information. Foreman was discharged for testifying falsely at the preliminary hearing. Beckham did not request a hearing to challenge the charges against him. On March 12, 1981, Beckham was indicted by the State of South Carolina on charges of false swearing, conspiracy and obstruction of justice. He was later tried and acquitted of those charges.

Dunn and Chief of Police Harris called a press conference after the terminations. A press release was issued on February 28, 1981 announcing that both Beckham and Foreman had been discharged and several articles subsequently appeared in a local newspaper detailing the circumstances surrounding the officers' discharge and the dismissal of drug charges against the five previously arrested men.

Harris initially contends that detective Beckham had no constitutionally protected property interest in his continued employment with the police department. Therefore, the department was not constitutionally obligated to provide Beckham with an opportunity to rebut the charges against him prior to his termination from the police force.

In order to be entitled to the procedural safeguards encompassed by the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment (notice and an opportunity to be heard) the complaining party must suffer from deprivation of a liberty or property interest. Board of Regents v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 569, 92 S. Ct. 2701, 2705, 33 L. Ed. 2d 548 (1971). "To have a property interest in a benefit, a person clearly must have more than an abstract need or desire for it.... He must have a legitimate claim of entitlement to it." Id. at 577, 92 S.Ct. at 2709. The sufficiency of such a legitimate claim of entitlement must be decided by reference to state law, Bishop v. Wood, 426 U.S. 341, 344, 96 S. Ct. 2074, 2077, 48 L. Ed. 2d 684 (1976) as evidenced by state statutes, local ordinances, rules or mutually explicit understandings that support the claim. Perry v. Sinderman, 408 U.S. 593, 601, 92 S. Ct. 2694, 2699, 33 L. Ed. 2d 570 (1972). Only when such a property interest exists does a constitutional right to a hearing attach. Roth, supra, 408 U.S. at 577, 92 S. Ct. at 2709. Our present inquiry, therefore, must be whether any South Carolina authority supports Beckham's claim that he has a property interest in his continued employment with the police department.

By Act of 1959, 1959 S.C. Acts & Joint Resolutions 18 ("1959 Act"), the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina created the Horry County Police Commission.5 Section two6 describes the powers and duties of the commission, police chief and policemen. It also provides that county policemen serve "at the pleasure of the commission." On March 7, 1977, the Horry County Police Commission adopted the "Horry County Police Department Personnel Policies" ("personnel manual"), a manual governing the rules of conduct for county policemen. The manual, in its introduction, contains language identical to that employed in section 2 of the 1959 Act Beckham asserts that the 1959 Act and the personnel manual establish that an employee may only be terminated "for cause" and therefore that a property interest exists in his continued employment.7 Moreover, he contends that the explicit language of the 1959 Act and personnel manual requires a pre-termination hearing. We are unpersuaded, however, that either document establishes a property interest in Beckham's employment with the police department or mandates a pre-termination hearing in an instance where none is requested.

The 1959 Act and personnel manual both clearly state that terms of employment are "at the pleasure of the commission."8 We have previously construed identical language to mean that an employee who serves without an employment contract is at the will of the employer and subsequently has no tenure and therefore no property interest in his employment, Patterson v. Ramsey, 552 F.2d 117, 118 (4th Cir.1977), unless the discharge is in violation of procedural rules adopted by the employer specifically designed to protect employees from immediate discharge. Prince v. Bridges, 537 F.2d 1269, 1272 (4th Cir.1976). Such procedural rules for employee discharge can be found in the "State of South Carolina, County of Horry Employee's Personnel Policies" ("Employee's Personnel Policies manual"),9 although Beckham suggests in his amended complaint that the manual may not apply to police officers. Beckham, however, failed to request a pre-termination hearing within the prescribed thirty day period; he waited until May 18, 1981, over two months after his discharge, before requesting a hearing.10 The Employee's Personnel Policies manual provides for a pre-termination hearing to those aggrieved employees who request one. The police department is not required, either by constitutional or statutory mandate, to provide a hearing to one who sleeps on his rights. Since no state constitutional,11 statutory or contractual basis exists supporting Beckham's property interest claim we must conclude that no such expectation arises.

Appellant next argues that Beckham had no constitutionally protected liberty interest in his employment because Beckham acted as his own accuser, thereby negating the need for a due process hearing. We agree.

There is little doubt that a constitutionally recognized liberty interest is implicated and the right to procedural due process required when government action threatens an employee's good name, reputation, honor or integrity. Roth, supra, 408 U.S. at 573, 92 S. Ct. at 2707. Moreover, governmental dismissal may abridge liberty if an employee is foreclosed from taking advantage of future employment opportunities. Id. at 574, 92 S.Ct. at 2707. In such a case, due process requires that the aggrieved individual be afforded a hearing to clear his good name. Beckham finds an infringement upon a protected liberty interest arising from the publicity surrounding his termination. He asserts that false information was spread by the defendants severely damaging his reputation and good name.12 The truth or falsity of Beckham's claim, however, has little import in an action alleging infringement of a constitutionally protected liberty interest. Bishop v. Wood, supra, 426 U.S. at 349, 96 S. Ct. at 2079. Such an assertion is more properly addressed in a state court defamation proceeding.13 While there may well have been publicity tending to disparage Beckham's character, we have previously held that the need for a pre-termination due process hearing is negated where the discharged employee has admitted his guilt and, in essence, become his own accuser. McNeill v. Butz, 480 F.2d 314, 320 (4th Cir.1973). An opportunity to confront his accusers or present exculpatory evidence serves no useful purpose when the accused himself has admitted the very acts which compromise his character or impugn his integrity. There exists ample, uncontested support in the record that Beckham admitted falsifying the affidavit and incident report.14 While twenty-twenty hindsight counsels Beckham against engaging in such regrettable conduct in the future, a liberty interest protectable by the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment does not arise in this case where Beckham by his own words and deeds admitted misconduct. A hearing, had it been granted, would only have confirmed the accuracy of the press release. That a newspaper got things wrong in a manner injurious to Beckham creates no cause of action against the defendants when, as here, no persuasive showing has been made that they contributed to the media error.

Accordingly, we reverse, and direct that judgment n.o.v. be entered in favor of Harris, Dunn and the former Police Commission members.

REVERSED.