Carl Wagner filed suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claiming, as significant here, that his Fourth Amendment rights were violated when sheriff's deputies in Washington County, Wisconsin, arrested him during a town-hall meeting on the belief that his presence violated a protective order awarded to a husband and wife who were also in attendance. The district court granted summary judgment for the deputies after concluding that they had probable cause to arrest Wagner. Although we disagree with the court's legal determination, we affirm the judgment on the alternative ground that the deputies are immune from suit under the doctrine of qualified immunity.
I. BACKGROUND
In October 2003 husband and wife Jeffrey and Patti Metzger obtained from the Washington County Circuit Court identical “harassment injunctions,” seeWis. Stat. § 813.125(4), commanding Wagner to “avoid the residence and any premises temporarily occupied” by the Metzgers. *835 One month later the Metzgers planned to attend a Plan Commission meeting in West Bend, Wisconsin, to oppose a “reserved road right of way” on their street. When the Metzgers pulled into the parking lot at West Bend's town hall, where the meeting was to be held, they observed Wagner entering the building. Unsure how to proceed, the Metzgers contacted the Washington County Sheriff's Department, which sent Deputies Christopher Killey and Brian Herbst to the scene.
According to an affidavit submitted by Deputy Killey at summary judgment, Patti Metzger showed Killey a copy of her harassment injunction and informed him that she wished him to enforce it so that she might enter the town hall. Killey thus escorted the Metzgers into the Plan Commission meeting where Wagner already was seated in the front row. After the Metzgers were seated, Deputy Killey approached Wagner and asked him to step into the hallway. Once in the hallway, Wagner confirmed that he was the subject of the harassment injunctions obtained by the Metzgers. Killey told Wagner he was violating those injunctions and must leave the premises, but Wagner, who had a personal interest in one item on the agenda, refused and returned to his seat inside the meeting room.
Still convinced that Wagner was violating the injunctions, Deputy Killey called his commanding officer, who agreed with Killey's assessment. Killey thus approached Wagner inside the meeting room again and asked him to step into the hallway for a second time. After Wagner complied, Deputy Killey told him he was violating the injunctions and could be arrested if he did not leave the area immediately. Wagner did not leave and instead returned to his seat inside the meeting room. Deputy Killey followed him and told him to leave, but Wagner refused. Thus, Killey and Deputy Herbst arrested Wagner and took him to the county jail where he was charged under Wis. Stat. § 813.125(7) with violating a harassment injunction. He was released two hours later after posting bail.
On October 21, 2004, Wagner filed suit against Washington County, the county's insurance company, Deputy Killey, Deputy Herbst, and the Metzgers. (Wagner actually named the sheriff's department instead of the county, but the department is a division of the county and not a justiciable entity. See Whiting v. Marathon County Sheriff's Dept., 382 F.3d 700, 704 (7th Cir.2004)). Wagner claimed that the Metzgers conspired with Deputies Killey and Herbst to arrest him without probable cause in violation of the Fourth Amendment. In addition, Wagner asserted state-law claims for false arrest, defamation, abuse of process, intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress, and false imprisonment. All of the defendants moved for summary judgment.
The district court granted the defendants' motions for summary judgment, holding that the deputies had probable cause to arrest Wagner and were therefore required to arrest him under Wis. Stat. § 813.125(6). The court thus dismissed the Fourth Amendment claim against the county, the county's insurer, and the deputies. The court also dismissed Wagner's federal claim against the Metzgers, reasoning that the absence of a Fourth Amendment violation precluded him from establishing an essential element of his conspiracy theory. The court then declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over Wagner's state-law claims.
Similarly, the federal claim against the Metzgers was properly dismissed at summary judgment. Although Wagner argues that the Metzgers acted under color of state law by conspiring with Deputies Killey and Herbst to violate his rights under the Fourth Amendment, there is no evidence in the record to support this contention. The Metzgers simply called the sheriff's department after seeing Wagner at the town-hall meeting and showed Mrs. Metzger's injunction to Deputy Killey. This interaction is not evidence of a conspiracy.
Here, Deputies Killey and Herbst knew that Wagner had entered the town hall prior to the Metzgers to attend a meeting of the Plan Commission, that the Metzgers wished to attend the meeting, and that they possessed harassment injunctions *837 commanding Wagner to “avoid ... any premises temporarily occupied by [the Metzgers].” The intent of the issuing court, as is evident from the language of the harassment injunctions, was to stop Wagner from actively harassing the Metzgers. Thus, if Wagner had followed the Metzgers to the public meeting and entered after them, there might be more support for an arrest (assuming one ignores any First Amendment implications) than in this situation where Wagner arrived at a meeting prior to the Metzgers and was there because an item on the agenda related directly to him and his family. See Bachowski v. Salamone, 139 Wis.2d 397, 407 N.W.2d 533, 538–39 (1987) (explaining that for conduct to violate Wisconsin's harassment injunction statute, Wis. Stat. § 813.125, it must be intentional and devoid of “any legitimate purpose”).
We cannot agree with the district court that the deputies had probable cause to arrest Wagner in this situation. If we were to do so, the possibilities for the Metzgers to use the injunction to harass Wagner would be limitless; the Metzgers could follow Wagner around town and force him to leave stores, restaurants, movie theaters, hospitals, et cetera. The district court, by selectively quoting the language of the harassment injunctions, overstated the command of those court orders. The orders do not prohibit Wagner from “being on” any premises occupied by the Metzgers; rather, the orders command that he avoid such premises. Thus, we conclude that upholding the district court's assessment of probable cause would undermine, not promote, the state legislature's goal in enacting the harassment statute of preventing “repeated assaults on the privacy interests of individuals without unnecessarily infringing on their freedom to express themselves through speech and conduct.” Bachowski, 407 N.W.2d at 538.
Examining the facts, not as an omniscient observer would perceive them but as they would have appeared to a reasonable person in the position of the arresting officers, see Mustafa, 442 F.3d at 547, we can understand how the deputies could believe that Wagner was violating a harassment injunction that required him to “avoid ... any premises temporarily occupied” by the Metzgers when he remained in the town hall after the Metzgers arrived. That the deputies' supervisor—and even the district court—agreed with their assessment only strengthens the argument that the deputies should be protected from civil liability by qualified immunity.
III. CONCLUSION
Accordingly, we Affirm the decision of the district court.