A veteran Wisconsin judge was arrested Friday for allegedly helping a Mexican illegal migrant evade ICE agents in her courtroom, the head of the FBI announced.
Judge Hannah Dugan, who has been on the Milwaukee County bench for nearly a decade, is accused of obstruction of justice and concealing a person from arrest in the case of Eduardo Flores Ruiz last week.
“We believe Judge Dugan intentionally misdirected federal agents away from the subject to be arrested in her courthouse, Eduardo Flores Ruiz, allowing the subject — an illegal alien — to evade arrest,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in an X post.
“Thankfully our agents chased down the perp on foot and he’s been in custody since, but the Judge’s obstruction created increased danger to the public.”
Patel later deleted the X post announcing Dugan’s arrest, for reasons that were not immediately clear. Attorney General Pam Bondi later reconfirmed Dugan’s arrest on social media, declaring: “No one is above the law.”
Dugan appeared briefly in Milwaukee federal court Friday morning before being released on recognizance.
“Judge Dugan wholeheartedly regrets and protests her arrest. It was not made in the interest of public safety,” her attorney, Craig Mastantuono, said during the proceeding.
Flores Ruiz, 30, had appeared before Dugan April 18 for a pre-trial conference on three misdemeanor battery charges.
ICE agents showed up outside the courtroom with a federal warrant for Flores Ruiz’s arrest but were asked by court officials to wait until the hearing had ended before cuffing him, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported, citing law enforcement sources.
Before the agents could enter, Dugan allegedly directed Flores Ruiz and his lawyer out a side door and through a private hallway to avoid apprehension.
Flores Ruiz had been arrested after police were called to a Milwaukee home for a reported fight March 12. According to a police report obtained by the Journal Sentinel, Flores Ruiz punched another person 30 times after being accused of playing music too loudly, then struck a woman who tried to break up the altercation.
One of the reported victims initially told police that Flores Ruiz was “just a friend that was staying the night.” However, when investigators returned to the home the following day, the victims said he had actually been living there for the past year.
Dugan, who graduated from University of Wisconsin Law School in 1986, declined to comment after it emerged the feds were probing her alleged interference.
Court documents detailing the case weren’t immediately available following Friday’s hearing and the Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Dugan was elected in 2016 to the county court Branch 31. She also has served in the court’s probate and civil divisions, according to her judicial candidate biography.
Before being elected to public office, Dugan practiced at Legal Action of Wisconsin and the Legal Aid Society.
Her next appearance is scheduled for May 15.
Flores Ruiz, meanwhile, is now being held in ICE custody at the Dodge Detention Facility in Juneau, about 50 miles northwest of Milwaukee, records show.
With Post wires
