Lawrence E. Lupien v. Harold W. Clarke

1The Honorable George Howard, Jr., United States District Judge for the
Eastern District of Arkansas.
United States Court of Appeals
FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT
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No. 03-3769
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Cozetta Ann Ausler, *
*
Appellant, * Appeal from the United States
* District Court for the
v. * Eastern District of Arkansas.
*
Arkansas Department of Education, * [UNPUBLISHED]
*
Appellee. *
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Submitted: March 7, 2005
Filed: March 10, 2005
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Before BYE, RILEY, and COLLOTON, Circuit Judges.
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PER CURIAM.
Cozetta Ann Ausler appeals the district court’s1 adverse grant of summary
judgment on three of the claims in her employment-discrimination action against the
Arkansas Department of Education (ADE), and the court’s subsequent grant of
judgment as a matter of law (JAML) on her remaining claim.
To the extent Ausler has properly challenged the grant of summary judgment,
see Harris v. Folk Constr. Co., 138 F.3d 365, 366-67 n.1 (8th Cir. 1998) (failure to

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assert in brief grounds for reversal of certain orders amounts to waiver of issues on
appeal), we agree with the district court that Ausler failed to create any trialworthy
issues on her claims of race-based hostile work environment, retaliation, or
defamation, see Burkett v. Glickman, 327 F.3d 658, 660 (8th Cir. 2003) (summary
judgment standard of review). We also agree with the district court that Ausler
offered insufficient evidence showing that race was a factor in the decision to change
her job duties. See Clark v. Long, 255 F.3d 555, 557 (8th Cir. 2001) (JAML standard
of review). Finally, we find no abuse of discretion in the district court’s decision to
overrule Ausler’s objection to her former supervisor acting as ADE’s agent at trial.
See Fed. R. Evid. 615.
Accordingly, we affirm. See 8th Cir. R. 47B.
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