Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Former Wisconsin Judge Hannah Dugan was spared from prison Wednesday for ushering a Mexican defendant out of her courtroom to evade US Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers. A federal judge fined her $5,000 and cited her in any other case law-abiding life in issuing the sentence.
Dugan, 67, was convicted of felony obstruction in December. Her legal professionals argued throughout her trial that President Donald Trump’s administration sought to “crush” Dugan in an effort to make sure judicial compliance with the ICE technique of concentrating on immigrants as they confirmed up for court docket hearings.
Dugan resigned the Milwaukee County circuit judgeship she had held for 9 years in January amid threats of impeachment from Republican state lawmakers who labeled her an activist judge. In her resignation letter, she stated her prosecution threatened “the independence of our judiciary.” Republican US Rep. Tom Tiffany, a fierce Trump loyalist running for Wisconsin governor, urged authorities to “lock her up” in a social media put up following her conviction.
Two Marquette University legislation professors spoke on her behalf, together with a former state Supreme Court justice and a Jesuit priest who learn an announcement describing Dugan as a defender of oppressed folks and saying he didn’t consider there was a necessity for punishment. “Hannah models what it means to be a Christian,” Gregory O’Meara stated.
Dugan then rose to handle the court docket, saying she’s tried to do her finest as a judge, and that her actions that day in April 2025 weren’t achieved maliciously however somewhat to take care of the “decorum and safety of the courtroom.”
“I have been cast as both a scofflaw and a hero. I am neither. I am a public servant who’s just trying to do my job,” Dugan stated, including that she has needed to retire from public life attributable to threats in opposition to her and her household.
A prosecutor then acknowledged that “she has experienced collateral damage because of her conduct,” however stated “judges can’t choose to disregard the law.”
US District Judge Lynn Adelman then spoke, saying Dugan made a foul choice and that he doesn’t consider prison is critical.
“This is a few minutes of conduct for someone who has dedicated her life to public service,” the judge stated. “It’s a marked deviation from an otherwise law-abiding life.”
He additionally famous that Dugan’s actions didn’t cease the ICE brokers from arresting the defendant exterior the courthouse.
While jurors discovered her responsible of felony obstruction, they acquitted her of concealing a person to stop arrest, a misdemeanor.
Prosecutors argued in a sentencing memo filed final week that Dugan violated her oath as a judge and put each legislation enforcement and the general public in danger.
“Judges are entrusted with tremendous discretion, but there is a line they cannot cross,” Executive Assistant US Attorney Richard Frohling wrote. “The defendant crossed that line.”
Dugan’s attorneys argued she has been “punished enough,” together with resigning as a judge and dealing with threats of violence. They argued in her sentencing memo that she shouldn’t be sentenced to any jail time apart from the half of sooner or later she already spent in federal custody.
Under federal sentencing tips, the presentence report calls for 15 to 21 months behind bars. The judge is just not certain by these tips.
Prosecutors stated the typical sentence for obstruction circumstances is 16 months, however they didn’t suggest a sentence.
“This was a serious offense, and it warrants a correspondingly serious sentence,” Frohling wrote.
No matter what she is sentenced to, Dugan’s attorneys stated they plan to file an enchantment.
Dugan’s case marked the primary time {that a} state judge in Wisconsin went to trial on fees of obstructing immigration brokers.
On April 18, 2025, immigration officers went to the Milwaukee County courthouse after studying Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, 31, had reentered the nation illegally and was scheduled to seem earlier than Dugan for a listening to in a state battery case.
Dugan confronted brokers exterior her courtroom and directed them to the chief judge’s workplace, saying their administrative warrant wasn’t enough to arrest Flores-Ruiz.
After the brokers left, she led Flores-Ruiz and his legal professional out a non-public jury door. Agents noticed Flores-Ruiz within the hall, adopted him exterior and arrested him after a foot chase. Every week later, FBI brokers arrested Dugan within the courthouse, main her exterior in handcuffs.
Flores-Ruiz was deported in November.