ORDER
A deputy sheriff seized five horses from a farm in Columbia County, Wisconsin, on suspicion of animal neglect. One of the horses, a 32-year-old mare named April, had been left in the care of the horse farm by its owner, Kelly Mahnke. The county eventually returned the mare, and Mahnke’s objection to reimbursing the сounty’s boarding expenses ultimately was resolved in her favor by a state appellate
The material facts are not in dispute. The Columbia County Sheriffs Department dispatched Detective Sergeant Daniel Garrigan to a local farm to investigate repeated complaints that several horses were being confined without proper care. When he arrived Garrigan saw five horses in a narrow enclosure, penned off from a larger group of horses in an adjacent pasture. The horses in the enclosure, Garrigan thought, appeared to be starving. They looked haggard and sluggish and disturbingly thin, and he could see in several of their frames the outlines of ribs and backbone. Open sores, seemingly untreated, were visible on the legs of two horses.
Compounding his concerns were the run-down conditions in the enclosure. The grass inside the fencing had beеn reduced to stubble, and although some feed had been stowed away nearby, it was inaccessible to the horses, and Garrigan could not locate an alternative source of food. Water, too, appeared limited. Garrigan saw only one viable source, a five-gallon rubbеr container filled three-quarters of the way with muddy water. A converted oil tank near the perimeter of the enclosure did hold a more plentiful supply, but a wire connected to an electric fence obstructed access to the tank, and Garrigan doubted that the horses had enоugh clearance to access the tank safely. He also observed that the horses had little in the way of shelter. It was a sweltering 4th of July, with midday temperatures exceeding 100 degrees, yet the horses’ only reprieve from the sun was a small patch of shade at the far end of the enclоsure.
Garrigan consulted several people with knowledge of horses before seizing the animals. Shirly Hoel and Kathy Sehroeder, whose complaints had prompted Garrigan’s visit, were waiting at the farm when he arrived and opined, based on their own experiences as horse owners, that the five in the enclosure were not being properly cared for. Garrigan spoke by phone with an equine veterinarian who, although unwilling to give an authoritative opinion without personally examining the horses, noted that on a hot day a five-gallon container of water would not suffice to support one horse, much less five. Garrigan then learned from a dispatcher that the president of the local humane society had been briefed on the details and agreed that protective custody was likely warranted.
Garrigan decided to take the horses into custody. Hoel volunteered to board them temporarily while the county sorted out matters with their owners. While the horses were being loaded, Duwayne Stork, the owner of the farm, arrived with a truckload of horse feed. When Garrigan explained that he was seizing the horses on suspicion of animal neglect, Stork insisted that Garrigan had it backwards— that the horses were confined because they were in poor health, not the other way around. He explained that several of the horses (Mahnke’s included) were old and unable compete for grass in the main pasture, and that several others had recently been recovered from the wild, where they had nearly starved, and needed special care. As for the absence of food, he said he typically let them graze small patches of pasture until they depleted the grass and had to be relocated. He admitted, though, that the grаss in this particular space had been exhausted. Stork added
Mahnke was charged with neglecting her mare, a misdemeanor, see Wis. Stat. § 951. The district attorney eventually dismissed the case, but that did not end the matter, because when Mahnke filed a petition in state court for the return of April, see Wis. Stat. § 173.21(4), the district attorney counterclaimed for the “costs of care,” roughly $1,800. The county had returned the horse by the time the suit proceeded to trial, so the only issue before the trial court was the one presented by the counterclaim — whether Mahnke was liable for the costs of care. Liability hinged on the propriety of the seizure: if Garrigan had “reasonable grounds” (the equivalent оf probable cause under the Fourth Amendment, Johnson v. State,
One week before expiration of the six-year statute of limitations governing civil-rights claims arising in Wisconsin, see Hemberger v. Bitzer,
Following discovery, the district court granted summary judgment for Garrigan. Although Mahnke had never asserted that her victory in statе court was preclusive on the question of probable cause, the district court assumed that it was and thus passed over the issue. Still, the district court concluded, Garrigan could not reasonably have known that he was violating the Fourth Amendment by seizing April and thus was shielded from liability by the defense of qualifiеd immunity. And with respect to the Fourteenth Amendment claim, the court continued, Mahnke had no claim because Wisconsin provides an adequate postdeprivation remedy.
In this court the parties concentrate on the issue of qualified immunity, but the district court’s analysis of that doctrine was unneсessary because Garrigan is not precluded from litigating the issue of probable cause. Wisconsin law controls whether the Wisconsin court’s assessment of probable cause has preclusive effect in this case. See 28 U.S.C. § 1738; Burke v. Johnston,
The district judge did not rely on any Wisconsin decision suggesting that courts in the state would conclude that Garrigan was in privity with the county during its fight over $1,800 in boarding expenses. Nor have we found any authority supporting that outcome. The county’s objective in the earlier litigation was to recover its minimаl expenditures flowing from the extended boarding of Mahnke’s horse, not to vindicate Garrigan. He had no interest in that money and no hand in bringing the counterclaim. Garrigan did not litigate the state-court suit “ ‘in the name of another to establish and protect his own right,’ ” nor did he assist the county’s pursuit of its money “ ‘in the аid of some interest of his own.’ ” See Paige K.B.,
It is true that the county fully litigated the question whether Garrigan had probable cause to believe that the horses were being mistreated, which is also the controlling issue in this civil-rights suit. But an identity of issues is not enough fоr earlier litigation to be preclusive. There is a distinction, as the Wisconsin courts recognize, between having one’s issues litigated in an earlier proceeding and having one’s interests litigated, Pasko,
We thus turn to the question of probable cause. Mahnke argues that a police officer in Garrigan’s position could not have reasonably believed that there was probable cause to seize her horse. Mahnke insists that, because Garrigan knew little about these five horses and had been presented with a plausible explanation for their appearance, he lacked reasonable grounds to conclude that the horses were being neglected. At the very least, she argues, Garrigan was required to investigate further.
Probable cause exists if the information available would justify a reasonable belief that a crime has been committed. Stokes v. Bd. of Educ.,
We conclude that Garrigan had probable cause to believe that the horses were being kept in violation of Wisconsin law. The determination of probable cause rests not only on the information Garrigan had received from third parties, on which he was entitled to rely, see Sow v. Fortville Police Dept.,
We recognize that Stork offered an explanation for the condition of the hоrses, but that explanation did not, as Mahnke asserts, negate probable cause for the seizure. Although a police officer cannot consciously disregard information that would bring clarity to a confusing situation, Askew v. City of Chicago,
Relatedly, Mahnke argues that Garrigan aсted unreasonably by not extending the investigation after speaking with Stork. Specifically, she says that he should have waited for a veterinarian to examine the horses and provide an opinion as to the cause of their conditions. But an officer need not continue his investigation when suffiсient information is available to support probable cause. Stokes,
Mahnke argues that a fact issue remains about whether Garrigan could have reasonably given weight to Shirley Hoel’s opinion, since he knew Hoel had been insistent about rescuing the horses, even offering to board them herself. But while it is true that further investigation may be
Finally, our conclusion that the seizure satisfied the requirements of the Fourth Amendment forecloses Mahnke’s argument that she was deprived of procedural due process. The balance of individual and public interests embodied by the Fourth Amendment “always has beеn thought to define the process that is due for seizures of person or property in criminal cases.” Gerstein v. Pugh,
AFFIRMED.