Ex-Milwaukee Judge Sentenced To $5,000 Fine For Obstruction

MILWAUKEE, WI — Former Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan was sentenced to pay a $5,000 fine for obstructing a federal immigration proceeding, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Wisconsin.

U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman handed down the sentence after a federal jury convicted Dugan in December 2025 following a four-day trial on a felony charge of endeavoring to obstruct a pending proceeding before the Department of Homeland Security.

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According to prosecutors, the case stemmed from an April 18, 2025, incident at the Milwaukee County Courthouse.

Six officers with DHS Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Enforcement and Removal Operations Task Force arrived that day with a lawful administrative warrant to arrest Eduardo Flores Ruiz, who was scheduled to appear before Dugan on domestic violence-related misdemeanor charges and had previously been removed from the country illegally.

Prosecutors said the officers, dressed in plain clothes without masks, waited quietly in the courthouse's public hallway and had notified Dugan's courtroom deputy and courthouse security of their plans before her arrival.

When Dugan learned the agents were in the hallway, she left her courtroom, brought another judge with her, and confronted the agents, telling one that the administrative warrant was insufficient and directing them to leave for the Chief Judge's office, according to the release.

She then returned to her courtroom, addressed Flores Ruiz's case off the record, rescheduled it, and had him and his attorney exit through a side door leading to a nonpublic hallway rather than the public one, prosecutors said.

When her court reporter offered to guide Flores Ruiz to avoid the "wrong door," Dugan declined, responding, "I'll do it. I'll get the heat," according to trial evidence cited by prosecutors.

Flores Ruiz ultimately fled the courthouse on foot into moving traffic in the rain before agents arrested him outside, the release said.

At sentencing, Adelman said the case "affirms that no one is above the law," according to prosecutors.

"Law enforcement officers need to be able to carry out their lawful responsibilities in the manner that is safest for them, the public and the individual they are attempting to detain," First Assistant U.S. Attorney Brad Schimel said in a statement.

"Dugan's reckless and illegal actions interfered with that goal and created unnecessary risks for all involved."

FBI Milwaukee Special Agent in Charge Alan Karr said in a statement that Dugan "betrayed the trust placed in her as a judge" when she helped Flores Ruiz evade arrest.

The case was investigated by the FBI with assistance from DHS, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.