Mitchell baseball coach Luke Norden stands in the dugout during a doubleheader between Mitchell and Yankton on Thursday, April 18, 2024, at Drake Field. (Mitchell Republic file photo)
MITCHELL — Longtime Mitchell baseball coach Luke Norden has filed suit against the South Dakota American Legion and one of its officials claiming defamation and financial harmrelated to the fallout from rape chargesagainst the town’s Legion baseball program.
The lawsuit, filed last week in Davison County, stems from a Nov. 21, 2024, letter from Christopher Patrick (C.P.) Van Delist, who is an officer for the South Dakota American Legion and served as adjutant at the time. In that letter, Van Delist wrote that the state’s Legion Athletic Commission determined that Norden and members of the Mitchell Baseball Association were “unfit to work with minors,” and that the MBA should select a new coach that had no association with the criminal behavior.
