Opinion ID: 794492
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Res Judicata, Collateral Estoppel, and Rooker-Feldman

Text: 35 The defendants' arguments with regard to the issues of res judicata, collateral estoppel, and the Rooker-Feldman doctrine all have to do with the effect of Barnes's criminal conviction in the federal-court proceedings. The defendants assert that the district court was not permitted to find there to be a factual dispute as to whether Barnes pulled a gun out in a threatening manner, because such a finding directly contradicts the state-court conviction; the defendants also state that Barnes is not permitted to contradict the criminal conviction in his arguments against the defendants' entitlement to qualified immunity. Appellants Br. at 34. The defendants' rationales are as follows: an argument based upon the alleged factual dispute fails to give effect to the judgment as required by the Full Faith and Credit Act (28 U.S.C. § 1738), it involves relitigating issues that could have been raised in the criminal trial, and it would imply that the state-court judgment was incorrect. Appellants Br. at 34-37. 36 Our holding that the defendants are entitled to qualified immunity as to the malicious-prosecution claim and the retaliation claim is premised upon Barnes's failure to demonstrate a lack of probable cause for the charge of interference with a conservation officer. The probable-cause determination is in turn based in part on the fact that Barnes was convicted of second-degree wanton endangerment, specifically for pointing a gun at Wright. J.A. at 63-66 (Jury Instructions). Because we have considered Barnes's criminal conviction in our analysis of the defendants' claims regarding qualified immunity, we do not need to address the issues of res judicata, collateral estoppel, and the Rooker-Feldman doctrine.