Milwaukee County Judge Dugan indicted in immigration obstruction case
Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury on charges of concealing a person from arrest and obstruction of proceedings.
Dugan has been accused by federal officials of helping an undocumented immigrant escape from federal agents waiting to arrest him outside of her courtroom last month.
The case has been cited by officials in the administration of President Donald Trump as an example of 'deranged' judges working to stymie the administration's increased immigration enforcement. Critics, including 150 judges of both political parties who wrote a letter to the Department of Justice objecting to Dugan's arrest, have said the charges against a sitting state judge mark an escalation by the Trump administration trying to make a political point in a weak case to attack the judiciary.
Tuesday's indictment is a normal procedural step in a criminal case but attorneys said after Dugan's arrest late last month that it was strange that federal prosecutors hadn't gotten a grand jury indictment prior to bringing the charges against her. Instead, U.S. attorneys filed a criminal complaint, which publicized the case immediately and allowed Dugan's attorneys to learn the allegations against her.
The charges stem from a routine court appearance in April by Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, a 30-year-old Mexican immigrant accused of misdemeanor battery. While he was in the courtroom, agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the FBI and DEA arrived with an administrative warrant to arrest Flores-Ruiz.
That warrant, which was not signed by a judge, did not give agents the authority to enter the courtroom. The agents waited in the hallway outside. Dugan directed Flores-Ruiz and his attorney out a side door of the room that exited into the same hallway. The agents saw him leave the room and one rode down the elevator with him before he was arrested later on the street.
Dugan has been temporarily removed from her seat on the Milwaukee County Circuit Court by the Wisconsin Supreme Court while the charges are pending, but after the indictment, her attorneys said in a statement she'll fight the charges.
'Judge Dugan asserts her innocence and looks forward to being vindicated in court.'
Dugan is scheduled to appear in court on Thursday morning.
SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Fox News
2 hours ago
- Fox News
Patel fires back at media critics after uncovering secret FBI 'burn bags' with classified documents
FBI Director Kash Patel called out the left-wing media Saturday for labeling him a liar over his discovery of a trove of sensitive documents related to the origins of the Trump-Russia probe buried in multiple "burn bags" in a secret room inside the bureau. Sources previously told Fox News Digital the "burn bag" system is used to destroy documents designated as classified or higher. Sources also said multiple burn bags were found and filled with thousands of documents. One document FBI officials found in a burn bag, sources said, was the classified annex to former special counsel John Durham's final report, which includes the underlying intelligence he reviewed. Patel addressed the burn bags on X, reminding people of what he proved in 2017 and 2018. "In 2017/18, I proved the Steele Dossier was fictitious intelligence, weaponized by corrupt FBI officials to deceive a federal judge and unlawfully spy on then presidential candidate Trump's campaign – all paid for by his opponent," the FBI director said. "The media called me a liar. "Now I'm the FBI Director: We just uncovered burn bags/room filled with Russia Gate files, including the Durham annex, and declassified them," Patel continued. "Once again, I released the prior FBI's own documents and exposed the truth. The same media is calling me a liar again. Maybe this FBI will release more docs directly, from FBI HQ…so we can see who is lying – wouldn't want to deprive the fake news of more bogus Pulitzers." The declassification of the classified annex is being done in close coordination between CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Patel, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Attorney General Pam Bondi and acting National Security Agency Director William Hartman. The declassified annex will be transmitted to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, who ultimately will release the document to the public. Patel, in a June interview with podcast host Joe Rogan, revealed that he found a room full of documents and computer hard drives "that no one had ever seen or heard of." "Just think about this," Patel told Rogan. "Me, as director of the FBI, the former 'Russiagate guy,' when I first got to the bureau, found a room that Comey and others hid from the world in the Hoover Building, full of documents and computer hard drives that no one had ever seen or heard of. Locked the key and hid access and just said, 'No one's ever gonna find this place.'" Patel and his staff have been working through the documents, some of which are related to sensitive investigations, including the FBI's original Trump–Russia probe, known inside the bureau as Crossfire Hurricane. It is unclear what the latest documents cover specifically, but sources told Fox News Digital that the most recent discovery was pursuant to an investigative request from Grassley. Patel has turned the documents over to Grassley. Grassley has been requesting information related to Durham's probe. Durham was appointed after then-special counsel Robert Mueller completed his yearslong investigation into the origins of the Trump–Russia probe — including intelligence community malfeasance during and in the aftermath of the 2016 election. Sources told Fox News Digital that Grassley's team is now reviewing the underlying information as part of its investigative work. As for the other records, Patel's staff is working to turn them over to Congress pursuant to investigative requests by committees of jurisdiction.
Epoch Times
2 hours ago
- Epoch Times
Mexico Asks US for ‘Immediate Repatriation' of Mexicans Detained in Alligator Alcatraz
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Wednesday that 30 Mexicans are currently being held at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport detention center in Florida. The center is more commonly referred to as Alligator Alcatraz because of its remote location deep in the Florida Everglades swamps, with a large population of alligators and snakes. It began operations on July 1 as a detention center for illegal immigrants detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and awaiting prosecution and deportation.
New York Post
3 hours ago
- New York Post
Weeping relatives, friends gather at wake to remember NJ mom and daughter killed in head-on crash with illegal migrant
More than 150 mourners gathered Saturday to remember the mother and her 11-year-old daughter tragically killed in a head-on crash with an allegedly drunk illegal immigrant driver. Sobbing and weeping relatives and friends — many of them, donning shirts with images of Maria Pleitez and little Dayanara Cortes' beaming faces — lined up outside the Lakewood Funeral Home in Howell to pay their respects at a somber wake. At one point, a mourner who'd been crying uncontrollably leaned over the 42-year-old mother's open casket, and repeated the phrases '¡Qué fuerte!' ('How terrible' in English) and 'Porque?,' the Spanish word for 'Why?,' over and over again. Advertisement 3 Over 150 people gathered at the Lakewood Funeral Home in Howell, New Jersey, to pay their respects to remember the mother and her 11-year-old daughter, tragically killed in a head-on crash. Leonardo Munoz Among those grieving the two devastating deaths was Dayanara's father and her friend, also 11, who was injured in the July 26 crash and is recovering. Pleitez was driving the two girls to a Wawa to get milkshakes at around 11:20 p.m. in Lakewood when Raul Luna-Perez, 43, slammed his Dodge Durango into the mom's Nissan Sentra, according to local prosecutors. Advertisement She was killed instantly, and Dayanara, who was sitting in the front passenger seat, died soon after arriving at the hospital. Luna-Perez was charged with two counts of vehicular homicide and assault by auto. Charges could be added once prosecutors receive the results of an alcohol blood level test. 3 Maria Pleitez and her daughter Dayanara Cortes were fatally struck by an alleged illegal immigrant, Raul Luna-Perez, 43, who was drunk while driving. Advertisement The Mexican immigrant, who was in the US illegally, had been arrested twice this spring for DUI in Red Bank, NJ — something Pleitez's niece bemoaned at the wake. Maria del Carmen Pleitez told The Post her aunt was a hardworking, cat-loving, doting US citizen who immigrated from El Salvador 24 years ago. 'She was a happy person,' Pleitez, 39, said. 'She would come to a place, or she would come to our homes, and just bring happiness. She was never angry, never sad. She always had the strength to continue going, and that's what hurts, because the guy had two DUIs already.' 3 Family and friends at the wake donned shirts and images of Pleitez and Cortes. Leonardo Munoz Advertisement Maria Pleitez spent years working in the painting department of Superior Promotional Bags, a Toms River promotional products supplier, the niece said. 'She was the head of the family,' Maria del Carmen Pleitez said. 'She was bringing up her two daughters. She had her own apartment, her own place, and she never asked her help for anything. We loved her.' Pleitez's 16-year-old daughter, who stayed home, is heartbroken, she said. 'It's so hard. We still feel like we can't digest everything. Like, you wake up in the morning, you think it's not true.'
