MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A federal judge said Wednesday that the trial for a Wisconsin judge charged with illegally helping an immigrant evade federal agents will go on as planned next month, brushing past talk of a possible plea agreement.
U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman told prosecutors and attorneys representing Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan during a hearing to assume the trial will begin as planned on Dec. 11 with jury selection.
Federal prosecutors charged Dugan in April with obstruction and concealing an individual to prevent arrest. According to court documents, Dugan was set to hear a state battery case in April against 31-year-old Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, an immigrant who was in the country illegally. Federal agents learned he was scheduled to appear in her courtroom and traveled to the Milwaukee County Courthouse to apprehend him.
Dugan learned the agents were outside her courtroom and led Flores-Ruiz out through a private door, according to the documents. He found his way outside the courthouse but agents caught him after a foot chase. The Department of Homeland Security announced this month that he has been deported.
Dugan faces six years in prison if she's convicted on both the obstruction and concealment charges. U.S. Attorney Brad Schimel said last week that plea negotiations were underway but Dugan wasn't interested in a deal.
Her defense team has insisted she's innocent and is preparing for trial, arguing that she was acting in her official capacity as a judge when she led Flores-Ruiz out of her courtroom. Still, Schimel's remarks raised questions about what might happen next in the case.
No one from Schimel's office or Dugan's attorneys mentioned the prospect of a deal during Wednesday's hearing, the last one scheduled ahead of Dugan's trial. They instead focused on the logistics of jury selection and trial procedure.
Steven Biskupic, Dugan's lead attorney, told Adelman that the two sides have already stricken 34 potential jurors based on responses to a questionnaire they sent out gauging their political biases. The two sides said they may need two days to select jurors from the pool of 90 or so remaining prospects.
Dugan’s indictment has intensified the clash between President Donald Trump’s administration and local authorities over the Republican’s sweeping immigration crackdown.
Democrats accuse the Trump administration of trying to blunt judicial opposition to the crackdown by making an example of Dugan. The administration has vilified Dugan on social media, posting photos of her being led out of the courthouse in handcuffs and labeling her an activist judge.
Biskupic said that he wants to make each potential juror fill out another questionnaire about their biases on the way into the courtroom on the selection days, saying publicity over the case is continuing. Adelman agreed.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Frohling told Adelman the government plans to call 25 to 28 witnesses, including federal immigration agents and witnesses who saw what happened in Dugan's courtroom and in the courthouse. Biskupic told the judge that the government also plans to introduce about a half-hour's worth of recordings made in Dugan's courtroom.
The government's case will take at least four days, Frohling said. Biskupic did not offer any details about his witnesses or the potential length of his side of the case.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys did not speak with reporters on their way out of the hearing. Dugan attended the proceeding but said nothing. She also left without speaking with reporters.
FILE - Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan leaves the federal courthouse after a hearing in Milwaukee on May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Andy Manis, File)
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Police renewed their search Monday for the gunman who killed two Brown University students and wounded nine others, a day after they released a person of interest after determining the evidence pointed "in a different direction.”
Officials announced the man's release at news conference late Sunday, marking a setback in the investigation of Saturday's attack on the Ivy League school's campus and adding to mounting questions about the attack and investigation, including a lack of video evidence and whether the focus on the person of interest might have given the killer more time to escape justice.
Providence residents and students were relieved early Sunday when officials announced they had detained a man at a Rhode Island hotel in connection with the attack and lifted a lockdown. But that relief was short-lived, as Mayor Brett Smiley said hours later that investigators didn't know whether the gunman was still in the area.
“We know that this is likely to cause fresh anxiety,” he said.
The release of the person of interest left law enforcement without a known suspect, with officials pledging to redouble their efforts by asking neighborhood residents and businesses for video surveillance that might help identify the attacker.
“We have a murderer out there,” Attorney General Peter Neronha said.
Authorities said Sunday that one of the reasons they lacked video of the shooter was because Brown's engineering building doesn't have many cameras.
The mayor said there have been no credible threats of further violence since the shooting, and the city's schools were open Monday.
On Sunday morning, officials took into custody a person of interest at a Hampton Inn in Coventry, Rhode Island, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) from Providence. Two people familiar with the matter identified that individual as a 24-year-old man from Wisconsin, though authorities never released his name.
“I’ve been around long enough to know that sometimes you head in one direction and then you have to regroup and go in another, and that’s exactly what has happened over the last 24 hours or so,” Neronha said.
He said there was some evidence that pointed to the man authorities detained, but “that evidence needed to be corroborated and confirmed. And over the last 24 hours leading into just very, very recently, that evidence now points in a different direction.”
Authorities believe they are looking for a person shown in a small, short clip of video footage walking away, the mayor said. The person's back is to the camera.
“Right now, we don't have any evidence to suggest that it was more than that individual,” Smiley said Monday on ABC's “Good Morning America.”
Despite an enhanced police presence at Brown, officials are not recommending another shelter-in-place order like the one that followed the Saturday afternoon shooting, when hundreds of officers searched for the attacker and urged students and staff to remain indoors.
The shooting occurred as final exams were underway.
The gunman opened fire inside a classroom in the engineering building, getting off more than 40 rounds from a 9 mm handgun, a law enforcement official told AP. Two handguns were recovered when the person of interest was taken into custody and authorities also found two loaded 30-round magazines, said the official, who was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke to AP on the condition of anonymity.
Investigators were not immediately sure how the shooter got inside the first-floor classroom in a seven-story complex that houses the School of Engineering and physics department.
The attack set off hours of chaos on campus and in the surrounding neighborhoods, as hundreds of officers searched for the shooter. One video showed students in a library shaking and wincing as they heard loud bangs just before police entered the room to clear the building.
During the lockdown, which wasn't lifted until Sunday, after the person of interest was taken into custody, many students remained barricaded in rooms while others hid behind furniture and bookshelves as police searched for the shooter.
One of the nine wounded students has been released from the hospital, Paxson said Sunday. Seven others were in critical but stable condition, and one was in critical condition.
On Sunday evening, city leaders, residents and others gathered at a park to honor the victims. The event originally was scheduled as a Christmas tree and Hanukkah menorah lighting.
Smiley said he visited some wounded students and was inspired by their courage, hope and gratitude. “The resilience that these survivors showed and shared with me, is frankly pretty overwhelming,” he said.
Brown, the seventh-oldest higher education institution in the U.S., is one of the nation’s most prestigious colleges, with roughly 7,300 undergraduates and more than 3,000 graduate students. The school canceled all remaining classes and exams for the semester.
Contributing were Associated Press journalists Holly Ramer in Concord, New Hampshire; Jennifer McDermott in Providence; Christopher Weber in Los Angeles; and Alanna Durkin Richer, Mike Balsamo and Eric Tucker in Washington
A police vehicle is parked at an intersection near crime scene tape at Brown University, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in Providence, R.I., following a Saturday shooting at the university. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
A bouquet of flowers rests on snow, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, on the campus of Brown University not far from where a shooting took place, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Passers-by walk past crime scene tape at an entrance to Brown University, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in Providence, R.I., following the Saturday, Dec. 13, shooting at the university. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Providence and Brown University community members gather during a vigil at Lippitt Memorial Park, a day after a shooting occurred on Brown University campus. Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in Providence, R.I. (Lily Speredelozzi/The Sun Chronicle via AP)
People hold candles during a vigil, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in Providence, R.I., for those injured or killed during the Saturday shooting on Brown University campus. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
