MILWAUKEE — Hannah Dugan, the Milwaukee decide accused of serving to a person evade immigration authorities, is understood for operating a strict courtroom whereas additionally being a well-recognized face locally, significantly at interfaith occasions.
Dugan’s arrest whereas on her method to work on the Milwaukee County courthouse catapulted her into the nationwide battle between the Trump administration and the judiciary over immigration insurance policies. She appeared briefly in federal court docket later Friday earlier than being launched.
FBI Director Kash Patel introduced the transfer by way of social media, saying Dugan “elevated hazard to the general public.” The decide allegedly let Eduardo Flores-Ruiz and his lawyer depart her courtroom by a jury door on April 18 to assist avert his arrest, in keeping with an FBI affidavit. Flores-Ruiz was taken into custody outdoors the courthouse after brokers chased him on foot.
Flores-Ruiz, a local of Mexico, was in court docket for a listening to after being charged with three counts of misdemeanor home battery.
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The FBI arrested Milwaukee County Circuit Court docket Choose Hannah Dugan for allegedly serving to an undocumented immigrant “evade arrest,” Kash Patel stated.
This is what we all know up to now about Dugan and the case in opposition to her:
Dugan is a longtime Milwaukee public determine
She has been a Milwaukee County Circuit Court docket decide since defeating an incumbent appointee of former Republican Gov. Scott Walker in 2016. She ran unopposed in 2022, and her present time period expires in 2028.
Tom Barrett, a former congressman and mayor of Milwaukee for 17 years, stated he was buddies with Dugan’s older sister in highschool and has recognized Dugan, 65, since she was 12.
“As an individual and a decide, she all the time tries to do the suitable factor, and he or she cares deeply concerning the group and folks and justice,” Barrett stated.
Ann Jacobs, a private harm plaintiff lawyer and Democratic chair of the Wisconsin Elections Fee, stated, “She is all the time at each parade on behalf of the judges. She is at interfaith occasions. Her religion is essential to her.”
Dugan beforehand was a litigation lawyer and held administrative posts at Authorized Motion of Wisconsin Inc. and Authorized Assist Society Inc.
As an lawyer, authorized areas she targeted on have been older individuals and disabilities, civil rights, home abuse and others, in keeping with her LinkedIn web page.
Dugan was president of the Milwaukee Bar Affiliation from 1999 to 2000 and labored three years as govt director of Catholic Charities of Southeastern Wisconsin Inc.
She was a finalist within the Most Trusted Public Official class within the 2021 Better of Milwaukee contest in The Shepherd Specific, another information supply.
A 1981 graduate of the College of Wisconsin-Madison, the place she additionally acquired her regulation diploma in 1987, Dugan has taught regulation and graduate college students at Marquette College in Milwaukee.
Attorneys name the decide a ‘stickler’ within the courtroom
Attorneys who’ve appeared earlier than Dugan describe her as extraordinarily powerful however honest.
“She is a stickler for process,” Milwaukee legal protection lawyer Julius Kim stated. “She’s honest. I actually do not assume she’s a pushover, by any stretch. She’s very methodical in her method.”
Kim stated Dugan takes her job very significantly.
“By way of toughness, she has a selected approach of wanting issues executed in court docket,” he stated. “By way of her sentences, feedback and the way she treats litigants, I feel she’s honest.”
An indication that remained posted on Dugan’s courtroom door Friday suggested that if an lawyer or different court docket official “is aware of or believes that an individual feels unsafe coming to the courthouse” or her courtroom, they need to notify the clerk and request an look by way of Zoom.
Dugan beforehand discovered herself concerned in a political battle in 2023, when she dismissed a Republican Social gathering lawsuit that argued a Milwaukee get-out-the-vote effort was unlawful.
The FBI says Dugan helped a person evade ICE
The FBI took Dugan into custody on the courthouse grounds – the identical constructing that federal immigration brokers entered final week seeking Flores-Ruiz.
Flores-Ruiz was faraway from the U.S. by Arizona over a decade in the past, and there’s no proof he acquired permission to return, in keeping with the affidavit.
A fingerprint match prompted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to go to the courthouse and wait outdoors the courtroom throughout his look.
After studying the brokers have been there, Dugan grew to become “visibly offended,” in keeping with the affidavit. She and one other decide approached them in a hallway and despatched them to the chief decide’s workplace. Dugan then returned to her courtroom and ushered Flores-Ruiz and his lawyer by the jury door, in keeping with the affidavit.
Defendants who aren’t in custody and their attorneys by no means use that door, the affidavit says.
That allegedly helped Flores-Ruiz depart the constructing utilizing an elevator.
Milwaukee County Circuit Court docket Choose Hannah Dugan speaks throughout a rally marking the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2025, in Milwaukee, Wis.
Lee Matz/Milwaukee Impartial by way of AP
What does Dugan say concerning the allegations?
Nothing but.
“The judicial code of conduct restricts judges from commenting on pending or impending issues in any court docket. Choose Dugan’s court docket calendar shall be coated by one other decide as wanted,” District One Chief Choose Carl Ashley stated in a press release.
Mayor Cavalier Johnson, a Democrat, stated the arrest “was clearly extra about hype than it was retaining our group protected.”
ICE brokers are making arrests in courthouses
Underneath steering issued Jan. 21, ICE officers and brokers could perform immigration enforcement actions in or close to courthouses in the event that they consider somebody they’re looking for shall be there.
They’re typically required to let their inside authorized workplace know forward of time to ensure there are not any authorized restrictions, and they’re supposed to hold out enforcement actions in personal areas each time potential, coordinate with court docket safety and take a look at decrease the impression on court docket operations. They’re additionally to keep away from doing so in locations that aren’t used for legal proceedings, corresponding to household court docket.
Immigration advocates say letting ICE enter courthouses for arrests intimidates crime victims and witnesses who’re within the nation illegally.
ICE counter say that in communities that don’t notify the company when jails or prisons are releasing deportable immigrants, they’ve to search out different methods to trace them down. ICE additionally says courthouse arrests are often safer for brokers as a result of individuals there have typically been looked for weapons.
What occurs subsequent?
Dugan has a court docket date of Might 15, this time as a defendant.
Outdoors the courthouse Friday, dozens of protesters gathered to help Dugan. Some warned that the arrest of the decide might discourage individuals from reporting a criminal offense and even reporting a fireplace for worry they themselves may very well be detained.
“These actions are transparently meant to be chilling, merciless and undermining the rule of regulation,” stated Melinda Brennan, govt director of the ACLU of Wisconsin.
Brian Schimming, chair of the state Republican Social gathering, stated by way of social media that the arrest exhibits that “no one’s above the regulation, even judges.”
However Republicans within the state Meeting, the place they’ve majority management, stated in a press release that the costs in opposition to Dugan are “critical, deeply troubling, and strike on the core of public belief.”
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Gruver reported from Cheyenne, Wyoming. Related Press author Corey Williams in Detroit contributed.
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