What is the test for a First Amendment claim against a police officer who falsely accused a group of environmental activists of criminal activity?

Our decision in Mendocino Environmental Center v. Mendocino County , 192 F.3d 1283 (9th Cir. 1999), is not to the contrary. There, we concluded that evidence that police officers had made false accusations of criminal activity against members of an environmental activist group was sufficient to justify a First Amendment claim by the group's members. Id. at 130203. The accusations in Mendocino were made in the context of a police investigation and contributed to arrests and search warrants aimed at the activists. Id. at 128991. That was speech that did more than simply damage the plaintiffs' reputation, it also intimated that punishment would imminently follow.