Wisconsin judge suspended over charges she helped migrant evade arrest
The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Tuesday suspended a county judge from performing her duties after she was charged with helping a migrant from Mexico briefly evade arrest.
In a two-page order, the court barred Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan from exercising her powers as a judge for the time being. No dissents were noted from the state’s high court, where liberals hold a 4-3 majority.
The Wisconsin justices wrote in the unsigned order that they were acting “to uphold the public’s confidence in the courts of this state.” Their order will remain in effect until the justices take further action.
In a statement, Dugan’s legal team said it was disappointed that she was unilaterally suspended. “We continue to assert Judge Dugan’s innocence and look forward to her vindication in court,” her attorneys said.
Also on Tuesday, Dugan’s attorneys announced that former U.S. solicitor general Paul Clement would help defend her.
Clement, who represented the United States before the Supreme Court under President George W. Bush from 2005 to 2008, joins a legal team that includes Steven Biskupic, who served as the U.S. attorney for Wisconsin’s Eastern District from 2002 to 2009, also during the Bush administration.
Federal authorities arrested Dugan on Friday and charged her with obstructing a proceeding and concealing an individual to prevent his arrest.
As previously reported by The Washington Post, a Milwaukee-based FBI agent said in a criminal complaint that multiple witnesses described the judge as “visibly upset” when she had learned that federal agents were waiting outside her courtroom on April 18 to arrest Eduardo Flores Ruiz, 30, who was set to appear before her on misdemeanor state battery charges.
Dugan allegedly confronted the agents in the hallway, according to the complaint. When they told her they had an administrative warrant to detain Flores Ruiz, she told them to speak to the court’s chief judge.
While the agents were away, the affidavit says, Dugan postponed Flores Ruiz’s hearing and directed him and his lawyer to leave through a private jury room exit instead of the public entryway. The agents later spotted Flores Ruiz outside the building, pursued him on foot and arrested him.
Immigration officials said Flores Ruiz had previously been deported to Mexico in 2013. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in an interview on Fox News that Flores Ruiz was facing a state domestic violence case that involved an alleged assault on a man and a woman, both of whom were injured and taken to a hospital.
“We believe Judge Dugan intentionally misdirected federal agents away from the subject to be arrested in her courthouse,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a social media post on Friday, adding that “the Judge’s obstruction created increased danger to the public.”
One of Dugan’s attorneys, Craig Mastantuono, told U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen C. Dries on Friday that the judge “protests her arrest,” stating that “it was not made in the interest of public safety.”
Milwaukee’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement office, which has made other arrests at Dugan’s courthouse this year, has adopted a policy that only allows for the detention of undocumented immigrants who are due in court for alleged crimes and not those who may be in court as witnesses or victims, according to the affidavit filed in Dugan’s case.
Kelly Kasulis Cho contributed to this report.
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