A federal judge Wednesday fined former Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan $5,000 for obstructing an immigration arrest outside her courtroom, declining to sentence her to prison or probation. 

The long-awaited decision came seven months after Dugan was convicted in December and  over a year after she confronted an undercover arrest team of federal agents waiting outside her courtroom to arrest Eduardo Florez-Ruiz, a Mexican-born man who was appearing in her court in a domestic violence case. 

When he was taken into custody in April 2025, Florez-Ruiz was one of a series of immigrants arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the Milwaukee County courthouse over a period of a few weeks. Judges began drafting a policy to guide interactions with ICE around the facility, concerned that the arrests would have a chilling effect on people using the courthouse or appearing for hearings. 

Dugan, in her judicial robe, confronted the arrest team in the hallway outside her courtroom alongside a fellow judge, who later testified against Dugan at her trial. Dugan told the agents to check in with Chief Judge Carl Ashley before going back to her own court to set a new court date for Florez-Ruiz. 

Dugan then allowed Florez-Ruiz and his attorney to exit the courtroom using a non-public hallway. The pair went back out into the main public hallway and unknowingly rode the elevator down with an undercover agent. Florez-Ruiz was arrested outside the courthouse after a brief chase. 

Dugan was charged with obstructing an immigration proceeding and concealing Florez-Ruiz from agents. After her high-profile trial in December, a jury found her guilty of felony obstruction but not guilty of concealing Flores-Ruiz. Federal prosecutors asked Judge Lynn Adelman to send Dugan to prison.

Adelman rejected an appeal by Dugan’s defense team to overturn her conviction. On Wednesday, however, he listened patiently as people took the stand to testify about Dugan’s character. 

Witnesses described Dugan  as a talented attorney and as someone who had dedicated her entire life to public service. She presided over thousands of cases as an elected judge and was also active in her church and volunteered her time to help some of the most vulnerable people in the city, supporters said. 

Dugan also spoke briefly, saying that her case had been politicized and that she is neither the hero nor the villain that she had been made out to be. Due to the ICE arrests, she said, the courthouse had been placed in an untenable position. She told Adelman that “it is with a heavy heart” that she stood before him as a defendant, and that she wants to return to her service to the community. 

Prosecutors countered that good people can make bad or criminal decisions, and that Dugan deserved a sentence that reflects the need for citizens to obey the law. The former judge committed an “abuse of trust” they said.  

Prosecutors also dismissed what they called “collateral consequences” Dugan experienced after her arrest, including having to resign her judgeship, having to move following threats on her life, being convicted as a felon and having to remove herself from community service and participation in public events. They repeatedly brought up Dugan’s assertion to court staff that she’d “take the heat” for dealing with the agents. 

Adelman said he had considered all the circumstances of the case and relevant laws in weighing his sentencing decision.

“This is a person that’s done a lot of good for our community,” said Adelman, noting that Dugan, who is 67, has no prior criminal record.

Adelman said that he believed Dugan was not in need of “corrective treatment”  such as a prison term or  or probation. He said that it is important that a punishment not only fit the crime, but also fit the offender, and that what prosecutors called “collateral consequences” were sufficient punishments.

Adleman told Dugan that the $5,000 fine he imposed is due immediately. Dugan’s attorneys spoke briefly to media outside, saying that they plan to appeal the case. They did not take questions, and prosecutors did not appear outside to talk to reporters. 

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Former Wisconsin Judge Hannah Dugan was spared from prison Wednesday for ushering a Mexican defendant out of her courtroom to evade U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. A federal judge fined her $5,000 and cited her otherwise law-abiding life in issuing the sentence.

“I think this is a situation where an otherwise good person, upset by immigration policies in this country, made a bad decision in the moment,” U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman said.

Dugan, 67, was convicted of felony obstruction in December. Her lawyers argued during her trial that President Donald Trump’s administration sought to “crush” Dugan in an effort to ensure judicial compliance with the ICE strategy of targeting immigrants as they showed up for court hearings.

Dugan resigned the Milwaukee County circuit judgeship she had held for nine years in January amid threats of impeachment from Republican state lawmakers who labeled her an activist judge. In her resignation letter, she said her prosecution threatened “the independence of our judiciary.” Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, a fierce Trump loyalist running for Wisconsin governor, urged authorities to “lock her up” in a social media post following her conviction.

Two Marquette University law professors spoke on her behalf, including a former state Supreme Court justice and a Jesuit priest who read a statement describing Dugan as a defender of oppressed people and saying he didn’t believe there was a need for punishment. “Hannah models what it means to be a Christian,” Gregory O’Meara said.

Dugan says she was just trying to do her job

Dugan then addressed the court, saying she tried to do her best as a judge and that her actions that day in April 2025 were not done maliciously but rather to maintain the “decorum and safety of the courtroom.”

“I have been cast as both a scofflaw and a hero. I am neither. I am a public servant who’s just trying to do my job,” Dugan said, adding that she has had to retire from public life due to threats against her and her family.

Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Frohling acknowledged that “she has experienced collateral damage because of her conduct,” but said “judges can’t choose to disregard the law.”

The judge then said he doesn’t believe prison is necessary, noting that Dugan lost her job, now has a felony conviction and experienced threats that forced her to move and stop attending community events. He also noted that Dugan’s actions didn’t stop the ICE agents from arresting the defendant outside the courthouse.

“This is a few minutes of conduct for someone who has dedicated her life to public service,” Adelman said. “It’s a marked deviation from an otherwise law-abiding life.”

Prosecutors pushed for a ‘serious sentence’

Prosecutors had argued in a sentencing memo that Dugan violated her oath as a judge and put both law enforcement and the public at risk.

“Judges are entrusted with tremendous discretion, but there is a line they cannot cross,” Frohling wrote. “The defendant crossed that line.”

Dugan’s attorneys argued she has been “punished enough” and should not be sentenced to any jail time beyond the hours she spent in federal custody.

Federal sentencing guidelines called for 15 to 21 months behind bars, but the judge, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1997, wasn’t bound by them. Prosecutors did not recommend a sentence, but Frohling wrote that “this was a serious offense, and it warrants a correspondingly serious sentence.”

Attorney Jason Luczak said after the sentencing that they would still appeal Dugan’s felony obstruction conviction. Jurors acquitted her at trial of concealing an individual to prevent arrest, a misdemeanor.

What happened in the courthouse that day

On April 18, 2025, immigration officers went to the Milwaukee County courthouse after learning Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, 31, had reentered the country illegally and was scheduled to appear before Dugan for a hearing in a state battery case.

Dugan confronted agents outside her courtroom and directed them to the chief judge’s office, saying their administrative warrant wasn’t sufficient to arrest Flores-Ruiz. Her attorneys said she was following protocols that called for court employees to report any immigration agents to their supervisors.

After the agents left, she led Flores-Ruiz and his attorney out a private jury door. Agents spotted Flores-Ruiz in the corridor, followed him outside and arrested him after a foot chase. A week later, FBI agents arrested Dugan in the courthouse, leading her outside in handcuffs.

Flores-Ruiz was deported in November.

Associated Press contributors include Hannah Fingerhut in Des Moines, Iowa. Bauer reported from Madison, Wisconsin.

Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit and nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters to get our investigative stories and Friday news roundup. This story is published in partnership with The Associated Press.

Former Wisconsin judge Hannah Dugan spared prison for obstructing ICE arrest is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

A federal judge on Tuesday declined to overturn a Wisconsin judge’s obstruction of justice conviction for helping a man evade immigration officers who showed up at a courtroom looking to detain him.

The case against Hannah Dugan, who resigned from the Milwaukee County Circuit Court following her conviction, was an early test of how the courts would respond to President Donald Trump’s sweeping immigration crackdown.

Trump allies branded Dugan as an activist judge, while her supporters said she was unfairly targeted.

U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman postponed Dugan’s sentencing on June 3 to consider arguments about whether he should overturn her conviction. But Adelman said in his ruling Tuesday that Dugan’s conviction would stand. He did not immediately set a sentencing date.

“The court’s decision is wrong,” Dugan’s legal defense team said in a statement.

Questions about a similar case in Virginia

Dugan’s attorney had argued that her conviction in helping Eduardo Flores-Ruiz leave the courthouse was invalid and should be overturned. He said that was necessary because a federal appeals court in April overturned a key Virginia immigration case that the judge and prosecutors had cited in Dugan’s case.

In the Virginia case, an immigrant who was in the country illegally was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and later escaped. He was recaptured and indicted on a charge of obstructing a pending immigration proceeding.

The federal appeals court found that the ICE action did not constitute a “pending proceeding,” as is required under the federal obstruction law.

Dugan’s attorneys argue that she should not have been charged because there was no “pending proceeding” against the immigrant in her courtroom being sought by ICE agents, only a warrant filed for his arrest. The filing of a warrant does not constitute a “proceeding” under the law, Dugan’s attorneys argued.

Prosecutors countered that the facts in the Virginia case are different and don’t apply to Dugan’s. They also argued that other cases support Dugan’s conviction.

Adelman said the attempted arrest of Flores-Ruiz did count as a “pending proceeding,” in part because it was a planned and targeted operation rather than an arrest resulting from a random encounter.

“Defendant argues that ICE was acting as a law enforcement agency here,” Adelman wrote. “But this ignores the fact that, unlike, say, the FBI, ICE can issue its own warrants and adjudicate and effectuate a removal, as it did with Flores-Ruiz, without the involvement of a court. This makes a difference.”

Dugan faces 5 years in prison, but will likely get probation

Dugan, 67, faces up to five years in prison after a jury convicted her on Dec. 19, but she is unlikely to be sentenced to time behind bars. Federal sentencing guidelines generally call for probation for defendants like her, who have no criminal history and are convicted of a nonviolent crime.

Dugan resigned from her position as a Milwaukee County circuit judge two weeks after her conviction amid threats of impeachment from Republican state lawmakers. She had been a judge for nine years.

The Trump administration brought the case against Dugan as the president pressed ahead with his sweeping immigration crackdown.

Trump’s administration and his allies branded Dugan as an activist judge, while Dugan’s attorneys said she was being unfairly targeted and argued, unsuccessfully, that she was immune from being charged because she was a judge.

Dugan’s case marked the first time that a state judge in Wisconsin went to trial on charges of obstructing immigration agents. She was acquitted of concealing an individual to prevent arrest, a misdemeanor.

Dugan helped an immigrant wanted by ICE agents

On April 18, 2025, immigration officers went to the Milwaukee County courthouse after learning Flores-Ruiz had reentered the country illegally and was scheduled to appear before Dugan for a hearing in a state battery case.

Dugan confronted agents outside her courtroom and directed them to the chief judge’s office because she told them their administrative warrant wasn’t sufficient grounds to arrest Flores-Ruiz.

After the agents left, she led Flores-Ruiz and his attorney out a private jury door. Agents spotted Flores-Ruiz in the corridor, followed him outside and arrested him after a foot chase. A week later, FBI agents arrested Dugan in the courthouse, leading her outside in handcuffs.

Flores-Ruiz was deported in November.

Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit and nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters to get our investigative stories and Friday news roundup. This story is published in partnership with The Associated Press.

Judge upholds conviction of former Wisconsin judge Hannah Dugan for helping immigrant evade ICE is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.