By David Thomas and Andrew Goudsward
MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin, July 8 (Reuters) – A former Wisconsin judge faces sentencing on Wednesday after she was found guilty of obstructing a planned immigration arrest outside her courtroom last year.
The case of Hannah Dugan, 67, formerly an elected judge on the Milwaukee County Circuit Court, drew significant attention as President Donald Trump’s administration sought to deter interference with its hardline immigration agenda.
Dugan was convicted of obstructing a federal proceeding and cleared of a lesser charge of concealing a person from arrest following a federal trial in December that highlighted tensions over the Trump administration’s use of courthouses to stage immigration arrests.
Prosecutors accused Dugan of directing a migrant from Mexico, scheduled to appear in her courtroom on misdemeanor assault charges, out of a non-public “jury door” in hopes of helping the man avoid federal agents who were positioned in a hallway outside her courtroom.
The migrant, Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, walked through a public hallway with his attorney and was arrested outside the courthouse following a brief foot chase.
U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman is set to sentence Dugan at an 11:15 a.m. CST (1715 GMT) hearing in Milwaukee federal court.
Federal prosecutors did not make a specific sentencing recommendation but argued that federal guidelines called for between 15 and 21 months in prison.
“Rather than uphold the rule of law, the defendant used the power and prestige of judicial office to obstruct federal agents carrying out their lawful duties in order to help an individual evade arrest,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum.
The sentence should reflect the “serious nature of her conduct and its broader impact on the justice system,” prosecutors wrote.
Lawyers for Dugan disputed that federal guidelines call for a 15-to-21-month sentence and asked Adelman to sentence Dugan to time served, meaning she would serve no time in prison.
Dugan’s defense team argued in a court filing that the episode was “isolated and unique; and there is no possibility of her repeating it.”
Her lawyers noted that she lost her judicial position following her conviction and argued she had been “intentionally shamed” by top officials at the Justice Department and FBI following her April 2025 arrest.
FBI Director Kash Patel posted a photo on social media in April 2025 of a handcuffed Dugan being led into a police vehicle with the caption, “no one is above the law.”
(Reporting by David Thomas and Andrew Goudsward; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Cynthia Osterman)
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