Judge Who Was Charged With Helping Immigrant Briefly Elude Feds Is Found Guilty

Adela Tesnow via AP, Pool

Wisconsin Judge Hannah Dugan was found guilty of felony obstruction in federal court on Thursday night after she helped an undocumented immigrant briefly evade federal authorities.

Dugan was found not guilty on a charge of concealing person from arrest.

On April 18, Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, a Milwaukee resident, was in Dugan’s court to face domestic battery charges. Shortly before her first hearing of the day, Dugan was told by a clerk that agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement were in the hallway outside of her courtroom. Those agents were waiting for Flores-Ruiz’s hearing to end so that they could apprehend him. Witnesses testified that they saw Dugan exit her courtroom and entered another one, where she instructed a judge to follow her into the hallway to approach an agent. Dugan directed the agents away from her courtroom and reenteted hers, where she told Flores-Ruiz and his lawyer that she would schedule a new date for the hearing. Dugan told a court reporter that Flores could leave the courthouse through a side door that was not open to the public.

This is a developing story.