By TODD RICHMOND
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A federal grand jury on Tuesday indicted a Wisconsin decide accused of serving to a person evade immigration authorities, permitting the case in opposition to her to proceed.
The arrest of Milwaukee County Circuit Choose Hannah Dugan escalated a conflict between President Donald Trump’s administration and native authorities over the Republican’s sweeping immigration crackdown. Democrats have accused the Trump administration of making an attempt to make a nationwide instance of Dugan to sit back judicial opposition to the crackdown.
Prosecutors charged Dugan in April through criticism with concealing a person to forestall arrest and obstruction. Within the federal legal justice system, prosecutors can provoke expenses in opposition to a defendant instantly by submitting a criticism or current proof to a grand jury and let that physique resolve whether or not to challenge expenses.
A grand jury nonetheless opinions expenses introduced by criticism to find out whether or not sufficient possible trigger exists to proceed the case as a verify on prosecutors’ energy. If the grand jury determines there’s possible trigger, it points a written assertion of the fees generally known as an indictment. That’s what occurred in Dugan’s case.
Her case is much like one introduced throughout the first Trump administration in opposition to a Massachusetts decide, who was accused of serving to a person sneak out a courthouse again door to evade a ready immigration enforcement agent. That case was ultimately dismissed.
Prosecutors say Dugan escorted Eduardo Flores-Ruiz and his lawyer out of her courtroom by means of a again jury door on April 18 after studying that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers have been within the courthouse in search of his arrest.
FILE – An indication is posted exterior of county Choose Hannah Dugan’s courtroom on the Milwaukee County courthouse, April 25, 2025, in Milwaukee. (AP Photograph/Andy Manis, File)
In accordance with court docket paperwork, Flores-Ruiz illegally reentered the U.S. after being deported in 2013. On-line state court docket data present he was charged with three counts of misdemeanor home abuse in Milwaukee County in March. He was in Dugan’s courtroom that morning of April 18 for a listening to.
Court docket paperwork recommend Dugan was alerted to the brokers’ presence by her clerk, who was knowledgeable by an legal professional that the brokers gave the impression to be within the hallway. An affidavit says Dugan was visibly offended over the brokers’ arrival and referred to as the scenario “absurd” earlier than leaving the bench and retreating to her chambers. She and one other decide later approached members of the arrest workforce within the courthouse with what witnesses described as a “confrontational, angry demeanor.”
After a back-and-forth with the brokers over the warrant for Flores-Ruiz, Dugan demanded they converse with the chief decide and led them away from the courtroom, in keeping with the affidavit.
She then returned to the courtroom and was heard saying phrases to the impact of “wait, come with me” and ushered Flores-Ruiz and his legal professional out by means of a again jury door sometimes used solely by deputies, jurors, court docket employees and in-custody defendants, in keeping with the affidavit. Flores-Ruiz was free on a signature bond within the abuse case on the time, in keeping with on-line state court docket data.
Federal brokers in the end captured him exterior the courthouse after a foot chase.
The state Supreme Court docket suspended Dugan from the bench in late April, saying the transfer was essential to protect public confidence within the judiciary. A reserve decide is filling in for her.
Initially Revealed: Could 13, 2025 at 4:05 PM PDT
