U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman, on Wednesday, sentenced former Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan to a $5,000 fine. After a jury convicted her of obstructing a federal proceeding by helping an undocumented immigrant evade an ICE arrest team out her courthouse.
Judge Lynn Adelman imposed the penalty following last December’s jury conviction.
The sentence fell well below federal guidelines. And closed a case that tested the boundaries of judicial authority, against federal immigration enforcement.
A federal grand jury indicted Dugan on two counts, less than a month after her arrest outside the courthouse last year.
Later that year, following a four-day trial, jurors acquitted her of a charge requiring proof that she intended to conceal Flores-Ruiz to prevent his arrest, but convicted her of obstructing a federal proceeding.
Trial evidence showed ICE officers arrived at the Milwaukee County Courthouse, with an administrative warrant for Eduardo Flores Ruiz, a previously removed immigrant, facing misdemeanor domestic violence charges.
After learning they were outside her courtroom, Dugan confronted the agents, said the warrant was insufficient and directed several to the chief judge’s office.
She then returned to her courtroom, addressed Flores-Ruiz’s case off the record, and had him and his attorney exit through a side door leading to a non-public corridor.
When her court reporter offered to show them the door that led back to the public hallway — which the reporter called the “wrong door” — Dugan declined, telling her, “I’ll do it. I’ll get the heat.”
Flores-Ruiz then ran from the building through moving traffic in the rain before agents caught him outside.
NEW: Milwaukee County releases footage showing Judge Hannah Dugan apparently sneaking an illegal immigrant out of the building by deceiving ICE agents.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) May 23, 2025
The footage shows Eduardo Flores-Ruiz being snuck out of the courtroom before he got in a foot race with agents.
Dugan was… pic.twitter.com/QFjEuTtRa1
Although federal sentencing guidelines called for 15 to 21 months in prison, Judge Adelman imposed no incarceration or supervision, only the fine and a mandatory $100 special assessment.
Prosecutors sought a prison sentence, arguing Dugan abused a position of public trust by obstructing federal agents carrying out a lawful arrest.
FBI Special Agent Alan Karr said her actions forced agents into a foot chase through traffic that endangered officers, Flores-Ruiz and bystanders alike.
Dugan’s lawyers argued she had already paid a steep price by losing her judicial office and cited her decades of public service and clean record in urging the court to spare her prison.
They also pointed to a broader legal challenge to ICE’s courthouse-arrest policy, noting that a federal judge in California had ruled the policy unlawful.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Brad Schimel said afterward that officers must be able to carry out arrests safely and that Dugan’s conduct had created unnecessary risks.
Dugan was advised of her right to appeal at the close of Wednesday’s hearing.
