Former Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan was sentenced on July 8, 2026, in federal court in Milwaukee for obstructing federal immigration agents. U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman imposed a $5,000 fine with no prison time and no probation, explicitly noting that prison was unnecessary.
This sentence diverged from federal sentencing guidelines that recommended 15 to 21 monthsin prison. Prosecutors had pushed for a “serious sentence,” citing the average of about 16 months for similar obstruction cases.
Dugan, who was approximately 67 years old during the proceedings, had a long career in public service before taking the bench. She worked extensively with legal aid groups, served as executive director of Catholic Charities, focused on veterans’ law, elder law, Social Security, and disability law, and held leadership roles including president of the Milwaukee Bar Association. She was elected to the Milwaukee County Circuit Court in 2016 and re-elected in 2022.
The case began with an April 18, 2025, incident at the Milwaukee County Courthouse. ICE agents arrived to arrest Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, a Mexican national who had previously been deported and reentered the country illegally. He was appearing in Dugan’s court on state misdemeanor battery charges (with domestic abuse modifiers) stemming from an alleged fight with roommates.
According to trial evidence, Dugan came out into the hallway, confronted the agents, questioned the validity of their administrative warrant, and directed them to see the chief judge instead. She then escorted Flores-Ruiz and his attorney out through a restricted private jury door. While the agents followed that directive, she quickly handled the hearing. Agents later spotted Flores-Ruiz, pursued him on foot outside the building, and took him into custody.
Dugan was arrested by the FBI on April 25, 2025, and charged with one count of felony obstruction of an official proceeding and one count of misdemeanor concealment of an individual to prevent arrest. On December 19, 2025, after roughly six hours of deliberation, a federal jury convicted her on the felony obstruction charge but acquitted her on the concealment count.
Dugan’s legal team argued that she acted within her judicial authority to control her courtroom, questioned the warrant’s validity, and had no intent to obstruct federal agents. They cited the split jury verdict as inconsistent and flawed.
Dugan maintained she acted lawfully throughout. She resigned her judicial position in early January 2026, effective shortly after the verdict, amid threats of impeachment from state Republican lawmakers. Her resignation ended a roughly nine-year judicial career.
U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman, who presided over the trial, upheld the conviction in June 2026 after rejecting defense motions for acquittal or a new trial. Those post-verdict challenges delayed sentencing from early June to July 8.
The former judge addressed the court herself, her first public comments since the arrest more than a year earlier. Her legal team has indicated plans to appeal the conviction.
Flores-Ruiz was later convicted via plea on one of the state battery counts and sentenced to time served before he was deported to Mexico on November 13, 2025, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and ICE. Federal officials described him as a public safety threat due to his immigration history and the nature of the charges.
This case became a prominent example of tensions between sanctuary-style local practices and federal immigration enforcement priorities.
It has also fueled broader debates about judicial immunity for courtroom actions, the role of so-called “activist judges,” and the limits of judicial authority when interacting with federal agents. Dugan had support from some local quarters, including a legal defense fund established to aid her case.
