MILWAUKEE (AP) — Hannah Dugan, the Milwaukee judge charged with helping a man evade federal immigration authorities, is known for running a strict courtroom and being a familiar face in the community, particularly at interfaith events.
Dugan was arrested last month at the Milwaukee County courthouse, and a federal grand jury on Tuesday indicted her, allowing the case against her to continue.
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People gather to demonstrate the arrest of Judge Hannah Dugan, outside the Federal courthouse in Milwaukee on Friday, April 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Devi Shastri)
A sign is posted on the doors of Judge Hannah Dugan courtroom Friday, April 25, 2025, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Andy Manis)
This 2016 photo shows Judge Hannah Dugan in Milwaukee. (Lee Matz/Milwaukee Independent via AP)
This 2016 photo shows Judge Hannah Dugan in Milwaukee. (Lee Matz/Milwaukee Independent via AP)
The case has catapulted Dugan into the national fight between the Trump administration and the judiciary over immigration policies. The Wisconsin Supreme Court suspended her while the case is pending.
Prosecutors charged Dugan in April with concealing an individual to prevent his discovery and arrest, a felony, and obstructing or impeding a proceeding, a misdemeanor. She faces up to six years in prison if convicted.
In the federal criminal justice system, prosecutors can initiate charges against a defendant by filing a complaint or present evidence to a grand jury and let that body decide whether to issue charges. A grand jury still reviews charges brought by complaint. If the grand jury determines there’s probable cause, it issues a written statement of the charges known as an indictment. That’s what happened in Dugan’s case.
Dugan allegedly let Eduardo Flores-Ruiz and his lawyer leave her courtroom through a jury door not accessible to the public on April 18 to help avert his arrest, according to an FBI affidavit. Flores-Ruiz was taken into custody outside the courthouse after agents chased him on foot.
Flores-Ruiz, a native of Mexico, was in court for a hearing after being charged with three counts of misdemeanor domestic battery.
Here's what we know so far about Dugan and the case against her:
The FBI took Dugan into custody on the courthouse grounds — the same building that federal immigration agents entered on April 18 in search of Flores-Ruiz.
Flores-Ruiz was removed from the U.S. through Arizona over a decade ago, and there is no evidence he got permission to return, according to the affidavit.
A fingerprint match prompted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to go to the courthouse and wait outside the courtroom during his appearance.
After learning the agents were there, Dugan became “visibly angry,” according to the affidavit. She and another judge approached them in a hallway and sent them to the chief judge's office. Dugan then returned to her courtroom and ushered Flores-Ruiz and his attorney through the jury door, according to the affidavit.
Defendants who are not in custody and their attorneys never use that door, the affidavit says.
That allegedly helped Flores-Ruiz leave the building using an elevator.
Dugan's attorneys said on the day she was arrested that Dugan “has committed herself to the rule of law and the principles of due process for her entire career as a lawyer and a judge.”
“Judge Dugan will defend herself vigorously and looks forward to being exonerated,” her attorneys said.
Her legal team includes Steven Biskupic, who was a federal prosecutor for 20 years and served seven years as U.S. attorney in Milwaukee, and Paul Clement, a former U.S. solicitor general who has argued more than 100 cases in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Both Clement and Biskupic were appointed to jobs by former Republican President George W. Bush.
She has been a Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge since defeating an incumbent appointee of former Republican Gov. Scott Walker in 2016. She ran unopposed in 2022, and her current term expires in 2028.
Tom Barrett, a former congressman and mayor of Milwaukee for 17 years, said he was friends with Dugan’s older sister in high school and has known Dugan, 65, since she was 12.
“As a person and a judge, she always tries to do the right thing, and she cares deeply about the community and people and justice,” Barrett said.
Dugan previously was a litigation attorney and held administrative posts at Legal Action of Wisconsin Inc. and Legal Aid Society Inc.
As an attorney, legal areas she focused on included older people and disabilities, civil rights, domestic abuse and others, according to her LinkedIn page.
Dugan was president of the Milwaukee Bar Association from 1999 to 2000 and worked three years as executive director of Catholic Charities of Southeastern Wisconsin Inc.
A 1981 graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she also received her law degree in 1987, Dugan has taught law and graduate students at Marquette University in Milwaukee.
Attorneys who have appeared before Dugan describe her as extremely tough but fair.
“She is a stickler for procedure,” Milwaukee criminal defense attorney Julius Kim said. “She’s fair. I certainly don’t think she’s a pushover, by any stretch. She’s very methodical in her approach.”
A sign that remained posted on Dugan’s courtroom door the day she was arrested advised that if an attorney or other court official “knows or believes that a person feels unsafe coming to the courthouse” or her courtroom, they should notify the clerk and request an appearance via Zoom.
Dugan previously found herself involved in a political fight in 2023, when she dismissed a Republican Party lawsuit that argued a Milwaukee get-out-the-vote effort was illegal.
Democrats and others have rallied around Dugan and protested her arrest, while Republicans have heralded it.
Democrats warned that the arrest of the judge could discourage people from reporting a crime or even reporting a fire for fear they could be detained.
“These actions are transparently meant to be chilling, cruel and undermining the rule of law,” said Melinda Brennan, executive director of the ACLU of Wisconsin.
Brian Schimming, chair of the state Republican Party, said on social media that the arrest shows “nobody’s above the law, even judges.”
Republicans in the state Assembly, where they have majority control, said in a statement that the charges against Dugan are “serious, deeply troubling, and strike at the core of public trust.” They suggested they could seek to remove Dugan from office through impeachment.
Under guidance issued Jan. 21, ICE officers and agents may carry out immigration enforcement actions in or near courthouses if they believe someone they are trying to find will be there.
They are generally required to let their internal legal office know ahead of time to make sure there are no legal restrictions, and they are supposed to carry out enforcement actions in nonpublic areas whenever possible, coordinate with court security and try minimize the impact on court operations. They are also to avoid doing so in places that are not used for criminal proceedings, such as family court.
Immigration advocates say letting ICE enter courthouses for arrests intimidates crime victims and witnesses who are in the country illegally.
ICE officials say they have to find other ways to find deportable people in communities that do not notify the agency when jails or prisons are releasing them. ICE also says courthouse arrests are usually safer for agents because people there have generally been searched for weapons.
Gruver reported from Cheyenne, Wyoming. Associated Press writer Corey Williams in Detroit contributed.
People gather to demonstrate the arrest of Judge Hannah Dugan, outside the Federal courthouse in Milwaukee on Friday, April 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Devi Shastri)
A sign is posted on the doors of Judge Hannah Dugan courtroom Friday, April 25, 2025, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Andy Manis)
This 2016 photo shows Judge Hannah Dugan in Milwaukee. (Lee Matz/Milwaukee Independent via AP)
This 2016 photo shows Judge Hannah Dugan in Milwaukee. (Lee Matz/Milwaukee Independent via AP)
