US judge upholds conviction of former Wisconsin judge Hannah Dugan

A United States federal judge has upheld the conviction of former Wisconsin judge Hannah Dugan, who was found guilty of helping a man evade federal immigration agents in her courtroom. The ruling means the case against Dugan remains in place after her legal team sought to overturn the conviction. Sentencing had previously been postponed while the challenge was considered.

Sponsored

US District Judge Lynn Adelman declined to set aside the conviction in a decision on Tuesday. Dugan's defence team said in response that the court's decision was wrong. The case centres on Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, an undocumented man who was due to appear for a hearing in a state battery case when immigration agents came to the courthouse seeking him.

According to the court record described in the case, Dugan told the agents that their administrative warrant was not sufficient to arrest Flores-Ruiz. She was then convicted of helping him evade agents by leading him and his attorney out of a private jury door. Dugan, who served as a judge for nine years before resigning amid impeachment threats from state Republicans, was arrested in the courthouse and led out in handcuffs a week later.

The ruling keeps alive a case that has become part of a wider dispute over immigration enforcement and the treatment of officials seen as obstructing federal action. Dugan's arrest and prosecution were presented by critics as evidence of a hard line taken by the Trump administration against people it viewed as lenient towards immigrants or resistant to mass deportation efforts. Her supporters have argued that the case was politically motivated, while Republican officials have described her as an activist judge who helped a person in the country illegally avoid law enforcement.

Sponsored

The case also touches on a broader practice that has long been controversial in the United States: immigration arrests at courthouses. Previous administrations have largely avoided such arrests because of concerns that they could discourage immigrants from using the legal system or reporting crimes. The Trump administration broke with that tradition, and also expanded immigration raids to other sensitive locations such as houses of worship.

Dugan, who is 67, faces a possible sentence of five years in prison after being convicted on December 19, although she is likely to receive probation because she has no criminal history and was convicted of a nonviolent offence. What remains unclear is whether her lawyers will pursue further challenges and how the court will proceed now that sentencing is no longer on hold. The next key development will be the sentencing decision and any further appeal, which will determine whether the conviction stands as the final outcome in the case.

#HannahDugan #LynnAdelman #EduardoFloresRuiz #immigrationenforcement #Wisconsin