A recently released video shows Judge Hannah Dugan from Milwaukee apparently talking to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents inside the Milwaukee County Courthouse. It is believed that she then instructed an illegal immigrant defendant to leave through a private exit.
65-year-old Dugan was charged last month with obstructing proceedings before a U.S. agency and hiding an individual who was supposed to be arrested.
Federal prosecutors claim that Judge Dugan escorted Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, a Mexican illegal immigrant accused of domestic battery, out of the courthouse in April while ICE agents were trying to serve a warrant.
The surveillance footage, released by Milwaukee County in response to an open records request, appears to show Dugan, wearing her black robe, confronting ICE agents in the courthouse hallway.
Eduardo Flores-Ruiz and Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan. (DHS/Milwaukee Independent via AP)
Federal officials arrested Dugan a week after the courthouse incident.
Dugan faces a maximum sentence of six years. She has pleaded not guilty to the charges filed against her. Fox News Digital has reached out to her attorney, Craig Mastantuono, for comment on the footage.
Last month, Dugan’s legal team also filed a motion to dismiss the federal case against her, saying the judge “is entitled to judicial immunity for her official acts.”
“Immunity is not a defense to the prosecution to be determined later by a jury or court; it is an absolute bar to the prosecution at the outset,” the motion said.
