Courthouse footage spells trouble for Wisconsin judge accused of helping illegal alien evade ICE

Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan was indicted by a federal grand jury last week on charges of concealing a person from arrest and obstruction of the law.

Dugan, relieved of her duties as a judge last month by the Supreme Court of Wisconsin, could land up to six years in prison if convicted for allegedly helping Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, an illegal alien from Mexico charged with three misdemeanor counts of battery, get away from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Judging from the courthouse footage recently obtained from Milwaukee County by WISN-TV through an open records request, her defense has its work cut out.

The federal indictment alleges that Dugan committed multiple “affirmative acts” to assist Flores-Ruiz evade arrest following his pre-trial April 18 appearance in her courtroom, including:

• confronting members of an ICE task force and “falsely telling them they needed a judicial warrant to effectuate the arrest of E.F.R.”;
• directing all members of the task force to leave the public hallway outside her courtroom and to go to the chief judge’s office;
• addressing the illegal alien’s criminal case off the record while ICE agents were waiting in the chief judge’s office;
• “directing E.F.R. and his counsel to exit Courtroom 615 through a non-public jury door”; and
• advising Flores-Ruiz’s lawyer that the illegal alien could appear by Zoom for his next court date.

The original FBI charging document goes into far more detail, drawing on witness testimony and other inputs.

The footage appears to corroborate a number of the allegations made in both documents.

In the footage, Dugan can be seen confronting federal agents in the hallway outside her courtroom, then directing them away to speak to the chief judge.

The FBI charging document notes that after learning of the presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, Dugan and another judge approached members of the arrest team in the public hallway.

The document notes further that Dugan, who was “visibly upset and had a confrontational, angry demeanor,” told the deportation officer to leave the courthouse. After the officer indicated he had an administrative warrant, Dugan allegedly suggested that he instead needed a judicial warrant.

The judge then allegedly ordered the deportation officer and other federal agents to report to the chief judge’s office.

‘Hannah Dugan should be barred from ever serving as a judge again.’

Seizing upon the distraction, the Mexican national and his attorney can be seen in the video sneaking out of Dugan’s courtroom through a jury door not open to the public.

Additional footage obtained by WISN shows Flores-Ruiz take off running upon exiting the building while federal agents gave chase.

RELATED: Dems condemn Trump admin over arrest of judge who allegedly helped illegal alien escape: ‘A red line’

Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images

Despite Dugan’s alleged efforts, law enforcement was ultimately able to capture Flores-Ruiz. The illegal alien reportedly remains in federal custody.

The Department of Homeland Security previously told Blaze News, “Judge Dugan intentionally misdirected ICE agents away from this criminal illegal alien to obstruct the arrest and try to help him evade arrest. Thankfully, our FBI partners chased down this illegal alien, arrested him and removed him from American communities.”

Dugan pleaded not guilty during her arraignment in federal court on May 15.

After seeing the footage, Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany (Wisc.) stated, “Hannah Dugan should be barred from ever serving as a judge again. A judge who puts criminal illegal aliens above victims has no place in our courts.”

RELATED: Tom Homan to Glenn Beck: Tim Walz ‘disgusting’ for comparing ICE to ‘Gestapo’ — Eric Swalwell not ‘above the law’

Last week, Dugan’s attorneys filed a motion to dismiss the indictment, claiming that “the government cannot prosecute Judge Dugan because she is entitled to judicial immunity for her official acts. Immunity is not a defense to the prosecution to be determined later by a jury or court; it is an absolute bar to the prosecution at the outset.”

‘These plainly were judicial acts for which she has absolute immunity.’

Her attorneys cited the Supreme Court’s July 1, 2024, ruling in Trump v. United States, where a 6-3 majority determined that the president “may not be prosecuted for exercising his core constitutional powers, and he is entitled, at a minimum, to a presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts.”

Dugan’s attorneys noted that even if “Judge Dugan took the actions the complaint alleges, these plainly were judicial acts for which she has absolute immunity from criminal prosecution.”

While she had no luck with her motion to dismiss, Dugan landed an anti-Trump judge with an apparent ax to grind.

Blaze News previously reported that Lynn Adelman, the Clinton-appointed U.S. district judge presiding over Dugan’s case, is a former Democratic state senator with a history of attacking President Donald Trump, claiming, for instance, that the president makes no effort “to enact policies beneficial to the general public” and behaves like an “autocrat.”

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