MADISON, Wis. — Federal prosecutors were set to start presenting their case Monday against a Wisconsin judge accused of helping a Mexican immigrant evade federal authorities.
Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan’s trial on obstruction and concealment charges was scheduled to begin with opening statements from prosecutors and defense attorneys followed by testimony from the government’s first witnesses.
The prosecution’s case is expected to run through at least Thursday, with roughly two dozen witnesses lined up to take the stand. Dugan’s attorneys have not said how much time they need and it’s unknown when jurors might begin deliberations. She faces up to six years in prison if convicted on both counts.
The trial is the latest flashpoint in President Donald Trump’s sweeping immigration crackdown. The administration has branded her an activist judge. Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, a fierce Trump loyalist running for Wisconsin governor next year, urged authorities to “lock her up” in a tweet Tuesday.
Democrats say Trump is looking to make an example of Dugan to blunt judicial opposition to the crackdown. Dugan told police she and her family found threatening flyers at their homes this spring.
According to an FBI affidavit, immigration authorities learned this spring that 31-year-old Eduardo Flores-Ruiz had reentered the United States in 2013 and was charged in March with battery in Milwaukee. He was scheduled to appear at a hearing in that case in front of Dugan on April 18.
Agents traveled to the courthouse that day to arrest him, but Dugan’s courtroom deputy told them to wait outside the courtroom and arrest him after the hearing, according to the affidavit. When Dugan learned that agents were waiting in the hallway, she left the courtroom and angrily told them to consult with the chief judge. As they walked away, she went back inside the courtroom and led Flores-Ruiz out through a back jury door that led to a public corridor, according to the affidavit.
Agents followed Flores-Ruiz outside the building and arrested him after a foot chase. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced in November that he had been deported after he pleaded no contest in the battery case and was sentenced to time served.
Prosecutors charged Dugan on April 24 with obstruction and concealing an individual to prevent arrest. The state Supreme Court suspended her from the Milwaukee County bench days later.
Dugan tried to persuade U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman to dismiss the charges, arguing in filings that she’s immune from prosecution because she was acting in her official capacity as a judge. Adelman refused, ruling in September that there’s no firmly established immunity for judges from criminal prosecution.
Dugan also argues that she was following courthouse protocols on immigration arrests and wasn’t trying to disrupt agents. According to her filings, Milwaukee County Chief Judge Carl Ashley sent out a draft policy about a week before Flores-Ruiz was arrested that barred immigration officers from executing administrative warrants in nonpublic areas and required court personnel to refer any agents to a supervisor.