Slap on the Wrist for Judge Who Helped Immigrant Avoid ICE

A former Wisconsin circuit court judge, Hannah Dugan, avoided both prison and probation at sentencing Wednesday over her actions to help an illegal immigrant who unlawfully reentered the United States avoid Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers attempting to detain him.Instead, U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman fined the former Milwaukee County judge $5,000, saying at Wednesday’s hearing, “For several reasons, prison is not necessary to satisfy the statutory purposes for sentencing.”“This is a defendant who made a bad decision in the moment. She appreciated the wrongfulness of her conduct, but this is nevertheless a few minutes of conduct for a person that has dedicated her life in service to the needy,” Judge Adelman continued, according to WISN12 News.The conduct that ended Dugan’s career took place on April 18, 2025, when ICE agents arrived at the Milwaukee County Courthouse to arrest a Mexican national, Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, who had illegally reentered the United States. Flores-Ruiz was scheduled to appear in Dugan’s court that day on charges described as three counts related to battery, domestic abuse, and infliction of physical pain or injury.According to the criminal complaint against her, Dugan became “visibly angry” upon learning that ICE agents were present in her courtroom and told them to speak to the chief judge. The chief judge established that the agents could execute their warrant in public areas of the courthouse, but not in private areas such as courtrooms.Dugan then adjourned Flores-Ruiz’s case without notifying the state’s attorney prosecuting the case or the alleged victims, who were in court to testify, the complaint reads. Instead, Dugan directed Flores-Ruiz and his attorney to exit the courtroom through a “jury door” a few feet from the courtroom’s main exit. Agents spotted Flores-Ruiz and his attorney when they reemerged in the hallway outside the courtroom. After a brief footchase, he was arrested a short distance from the courthouse. Flores-Ruiz pleaded guilty to illegal reentry in September. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced in a post on X that the agency once again deported him from the United States on November 14.Dugan was arrested on April 25, a week after Flores-Ruiz’s appearance in her court and released on bond the same day. In December, a jury convicted her of felony obstruction, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison under the current U.S. Sentencing Guidelines. Based on the specifics of Dugan’s case, prosecutors sought a prison sentence between 15 and 21 months.She resigned from her judgeship in January, writing in her letter to Wisconsin’s governor, Tony Evers, that she would continue to fight the “unprecedented federal legal proceedings” against her that “threaten the independence of our judiciary,” but that “Wisconsin citizens that I cherish deserve to start the year with a judge on the bench in Milwaukee County Branch 31 rather than have the fate of that Court rest in a partisan fight in the state legislature.”In a sentencing memorandum filed ahead of Wednesday’s hearing, prosecutors said Dugan “used the power and prestige of judicial office to obstruct federal agents carrying out their lawful duties in order to help an individual evade arrest.”“Citizens enter courtrooms expecting that the rules will be followed, that justice will be administered fairly, and that the person wearing the robe will honor her oath to uphold the Constitution and to faithfully and impartially discharge her duties under the law,” Executive Assistant U. S. Attorney Richard Frohling wrote. “But when faced with a situation in which the defendant personally disagreed with the lawful actions of federal authorities, she abandoned that oath.”Before she was sentenced Wednesday, Dugan told the court: “My acts that day were consistent with the expressed administrative and community concerns for our state courthouse. My judicial acts were not done with any malicious intent.”“I’ve been cast as both a scofflaw and a hero,” she said. “I am neither. I am a public servant who was just trying to do my job.”

Slap on the Wrist for Judge Who Helped Immigrant Avoid ICE

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