More than 130 former judges blast Judge Hannah Dugan's indictment as ‘egregious overreach'
The Wisconsin judge was indicted in April after being accused of helping an undocumented migrant flee arrest at her courthouse last month. She faces federal charges of obstructing or impeding a proceeding and concealing an individual to prevent his discovery and arrest — charges that carry a maximum penalty of six years in prison and a $350,000 fine. She has pleaded not guilty.
A group of 138 former judges filed an amicus brief in the case Friday, urging the government to dismiss the charges and warning that Dugan's indictment 'threatens to undermine centuries of precedent on judicial immunity, crucial for an effective judiciary.'
The case 'represents an extraordinary and direct assault on the independence of the entire judicial system,' the former judges wrote. 'Permitting the prosecution of a state circuit court judge for conduct falling squarely within her rightful exercise of judicial discretion establishes a dangerous precedent that will chill judicial decision-making at every level.'
The group argued that 'as a judge, she is entitled to absolute immunity for her official acts; this bar on prosecution is the same absolute immunity that is given to members of the legislative and executive branches for their actions taken in an official capacity.'
Dugan's lawyers argued similarly when they filed a motion to dismiss the case this month. Her attorneys cited Trump v. United States, the Supreme Court ruling that determined presidents were immune from criminal prosecution for official acts. 'Judges are entitled to absolute immunity for their judicial acts, without regard to the motive with which those acts are allegedly performed,' her lawyers argued.
Judges can make mistakes, the group acknowledged, but those mistakes are redressed in the judicial branch. 'When judges are alleged to have gotten something wrong or have abused authority dedicated exclusively to the judiciary, it falls exclusively to the judiciary, not prosecutors, to investigate the purported mistake through the appellate process or judicial misconduct proceedings,' they wrote.
The 138 retired judges also blasted the indictment as an 'egregious overreach by the executive branch threatens public trust in the judicial system and the ability of the public to avail themselves of courthouses without fear of reprisal.'
After her initial appearance in court on April 25, she was released from detention. However, the state's supreme court suspended her from the bench days later. 'It is in the public interest that she be temporarily relieved of her official duties,' the state supreme court wrote in an April 29 order.
Friday's amicus brief came weeks after 150 former judges wrote a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi following Dugan's arrest. They slammed Bondi for calling judges 'deranged' on April 25, the day of Dugan's arrest. That same day, FBI Director Kash Patel posted a photo of the judge in handcuffs on his official social media account, writing: 'No one is above the law.'
The Trump administration has repeatedly attacked judges, with the president himself even calling for one to be impeached in a social media post. The post prompted Chief Justice John Roberts to issue a rare statement: "For more than two centuries it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreements concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose."
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The Sun
9 minutes ago
- The Sun
My boy was promised a new bike, then kidnapped – he was abused & thrown in the river by monster neighbour
WATCHING his son Jeffrey practicing his push-ups, Robert Curley couldn't help but smile. While Robert had split with Barbara, the mum of his three boys he lived just round the corner meaning he could see them every day. 8 8 8 'We were amicable and both focused on doing the best for our kids,' Robert, now 68, says. 'After we'd broken up, I'd moved just around the corner, so I was able to see them every day and keep a protective eye over them too.' But even with both of his parents furiously protective of their 10-year-old boy, nothing could be done to save Jeffrey from his appalling fate. On October 1st 1997, Jeffrey had been washing his grandmother's dog in Cambridge, Massachusetts when he was kidnapped by neighbours Salvatore Sicari and Charles Jaynes. The pair had lured the schoolboy into the car with the promise of a new bike before suffocating him, abusing him and then tossing his body into a nearby river. 'Although it's been 28 years since Jeffrey walked out of home and into the clutches of his killers, losing him never gets any easier,' his dad says. 'What our son went through in his last moments will haunt me forever.' Robert says that he had his suspicions of Sicari but could never have imagined what he was capable of. 'I noticed Salvatore, who I knew was a troublemaker and an oddball, hanging around a lot and I became worried,' he says. 'The last thing I wanted was for him to befriend my boys.' Lag chillingly said 'that's for Sarah Payne' after knifing her evil killer in bloodbath 'revenge attack' in prison cell Robert asked his other son Bob whether he and Sicari were friends. 'He told me they weren't but explained that he and his friends had noticed Salvatore staring at them,' Robert says. 'It struck me as weird but I felt Bob had got the measure of him, so that eased my concerns slightly.' Then one afternoon, a couple of days later, Barbara rang Robert in a panic. Jeffrey was missing. 'It wasn't like Jeffrey to go somewhere without telling us and I instantly got a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach,' Robert recalls. Barbara had called the police and by the time Robert reached her home detectives had arrived to take down details. Jeffrey had been visiting his grandmother nearby and had been washing her dog outside when he had disappeared. 8 8 8 Robert says: 'I picked up the phone and called every hospital nearby, just in case he'd been hurt and someone had taken him there. But no luck.' As night fell, there was still no sign of Jeffrey and the next morning family, friends and neighbours set a search party to help look for the 10-year-old. 'Among them was Sal, who approached me and said that he wanted to help,' Robert says. 'I was still wary of him and then he said something so odd it knocked me for six. 'He told me that people thought he and his best friend Charles were gay but that he liked girls. 'I couldn't figure out why he was bringing up his sexuality at a time like this 'However, I had bigger things to worry about as the search came to nothing.' Days passed with no news. Then a week after his disappearance the police arrived at Barbara's with a devastating blow. Officers informed the parents that Jeffrey had been found dead. His body had been found by police divers in a cement-filled container in the river. His little 10-year-old frame had no chance against the 17 stone brute Robert Curley They explained that the 10-year-old had been kidnapped by Salvatore Sicari and Charles Jaynes and they were being investigated on suspicion of murder. Robert says: 'I thought about Sal saying he wanted to help with the search just days earlier and felt completely sickened. 'Barbara couldn't bear to go, but I needed to see our boy one last time. 'As I looked down at him in the casket, I broke down. 'If he had any injuries, they were covered up, and he looked perfect. 'I vowed to make sure that his killers paid for what they had done to my boy. 'For the next year, we tried our best to get on with our lives, but it was like being in a nightmare.' In time, Salvatore Sicari, 21, appeared in court and denied kidnapping and murdering Jeffrey. During his trial, the court heard that after befriending the schoolboy, he and Charles Jaynes, 22, had then lured him into their car with the promise of a new bike. They then drove in the direction of the bike shop so as not to raise his suspicions. But after parking at the back of the shop Jaynes got into the back seat with Jeffrey, put his arm around him and held a petrol-soaked rag to his face until he suffocated. 'His little 10-year-old frame had no chance against the 17 stone brute,' Robert says. 'The vile duo had then put Jeffrey's body in the boot and driven him back to Jaynes' flat in Manchester, NH, where Sicari had abused him. 'After that, they'd put his body in the storage container and dumped it in the river.' Sicari's lawyer placed the blame with Jaynes, saying Sicari witnessed the killing and helped cover up the crime, but that didn't make him a killer. But on November 13 1998 he was found guilty and jailed for life without parole for first-degree murder, with a concurrent sentence of 19 to 20 years for kidnapping. 'We wept with relief,' remembers Robert. 'But months later, we had to go through it all again at Jaynes' trial.' Who are the UK's worst serial killers? THE UK's most prolific serial killer was actually a doctor. Here's a rundown of the worst offenders in the UK. British GP Harold Shipman is one of the most prolific serial killers in recorded history. He was found guilty of murdering 15 patients in 2000, but the Shipman Inquiry examined his crimes and identified 218 victims, 80 per cent of whom were elderly women. After his death Jonathan Balls was accused of poisoning at least 22 people between 1824 and 1845. Mary Ann Cotton is suspected of murdering up to 21 people, including husbands, lovers and children. She is Britain's most prolific female serial killer. Her crimes were committed between 1852 and 1872, and she was hanged in March 1873. Amelia Sach and Annie Walters became known as the Finchley Baby Farmers after killing at least 20 babies between 1900 and 1902. The pair became the first women to be hanged at Holloway Prison on February 3, 1903. William Burke and William Hare killed 16 people and sold their bodies. Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe was found guilty in 1981 of murdering 13 women and attempting to kill seven others between 1975 and 1980. Dennis Nilsen was caged for life in 1983 after murdering up to 15 men when he picked them up from the streets. He was found guilty of six counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder and was sentenced to life in jail. Fred West was found guilty of killing 12 but it's believed he was responsible for many more deaths. Janynes too denied murder and kidnapping, blaming Sicari. His lawyer claimed he was at most an accessory to murder, despite the police finding the football shirt Jeffrey had been wearing the day he disappeared in Jaynes' flat, along with a receipt for a storage container and concrete. On December 11 1998 the jury found Jaynes guilty of second-degree murder and kidnapping and he was jailed for life, with parole. 'We got 'em, I thought, remembering my vow to Jeffrey,' Robert says. 'But while I was glad justice had been done, our hearts were broken. 'While we tried to get on with our lives, Jeffrey was never far from our thoughts and the ache of loss never dimmed.' Then, 23 years after Jeffrey's murder, aged 44 Jaynes applied for parole and admitted publicly for the first time that he had kidnapped and murdered Jeffrey Curley to a parole board. 'He claimed Sicari had put him up to the idea of having sex with Jeffrey and then killing him,' Robert says. 'Together, they'd groomed Jeffrey. 'It broke my heart to hear Jaynes say that when our little boy had got into their car he'd told these monsters, 'You guys are my best friends.'' In his parole hearing Jaynes claimed he'd gone through with the murder to impress Sicari. He also added, 'I wanted to see if I could get away with it like on TV and the movies.' He told the parole board he had kept Jeffrey's shirt 'as something to remember him by'. 'Barbara and I went to the hearing to demand he be kept behind bars,' Robert says. 'His admissions didn't make what he'd done any less despicable and I told the board, 'The real Charles Jaynes is the devil. That's the devil right there.' 'Thankfully, his parole was denied.' Now, five years on, Jaynes has made another parole application, and Barbara and Robert are gearing up to oppose it once more. 'While I still have breath in my body, I will fight to keep the monster who took him from us behind bars,' says Robert. 'That's the promise I made my funny, cheeky, beautiful little boy, and I'm determined to keep it.' 8 8
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Donald Trump tells Chuck Schumer to 'go to hell' as tensions escalate in senate nominee deal funding
President Donald Trump detonated a high-stakes Senate negotiation with an outburst on social media on Saturday night telling Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to 'GO TO HELL' and abruptly ending talks over dozens of pending nominee confirmations. The president's Truth Social tirade came just hours before lawmakers were expected to strike a deal and depart for their month-long recess. Instead, the Senate adjourned in chaos after voting on only seven of the more than 60 nominees in limbo. 'Tell Schumer, who is under tremendous political pressure from within his own party, the Radical Left Lunatics, to GO TO HELL!' Trump wrote. 'Do not accept the offer, go home and explain to your constituents what bad people the Democrats are, and what a great job the Republicans are doing, and have done, for our Country. Have a great RECESS and, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!' The outburst from the president came just as Senate leaders thought they were closing in on a long-sought agreement to confirm the nominees before the August break. Instead, the Senate rapidly voted through just seven names before adjourning until September. One nominee did break through the gridlock however, Jeanine Pirro, the former Fox News personality and New York judge, was confirmed 50-45 as the US Attorney for the District of Columbia. The president's Truth Social tirade came just hours before lawmakers were expected to strike a deal and depart for their monthlong recess The high-profile appointment that drew fierce opposition from Democrats. Pirro has been serving in the role in an acting capacity since May but her appointment drew sharp criticism from House Democrats, who warned she would be a 'partisan tool' for the White House. 'Over the past decade, Ms. Pirro has consistently demonstrated that her loyalty lies with Donald Trump the person, not with the Constitution or the rule of law,' Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) wrote in a letter to Senate leadership. Trump accused Schumer of demanding 'over One Billion Dollars' in return for advancing a limited slate of bipartisan nominees - a claim Schumer did not directly address but which derailed the fragile progress. The now-collapsed deal had been the product of marathon talks between Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), Schumer, and the White House. Both parties hoped to finalize a package that would greenlight Trump's nominees in exchange for Democrats' demands on National Institutes of Health (NIH) and foreign aid funding. The Senate held a rare weekend session as the two parties tried to work out the final details of a deal. But it was clear that there would be no agreement when Trump launched his attack on Schumer and told Republicans to pack it up and go home. Lawmakers had been expected to strike a deal before departing for their monthlong recess but the negotiations fell apart after Trump's online outburst Trump's Truth Social post blindsided negotiators and threw the entire Senate into disarray. 'This demand is egregious and unprecedented,' Trump wrote. 'It is political extortion, by any other name.' Schumer, speaking on the Senate floor hours later while flanked by a poster-sized copy of Trump's post, declared the negotiations dead and blamed the president directly. 'He took his ball, he went home, leaving Democrats and Republicans alike wondering what the hell happened,' Schumer said. 'Trump's all-caps tweet said it all. In a fit of rage, Trump threw in the towel.' Although Republicans and Democrats traded blame all weekend, there had been broad consensus that a deal was within reach. 'There were several different times where I think either or both sides maybe thought there was a deal,' said Thune. 'But in the end, we never got to a place where we had both sides agree to lock it in.' Democrats insisted their offer never changed, while Republicans claimed Schumer kept escalating his demands, especially by tying nominee confirmations to reversals of Trump's proposed spending claw backs. 'We've had three different deals since last night,' said Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK). 'And every time it's been, every time it's 'I want more.' According to Mullin, Trump's dramatic post didn't catch the GOP off guard - the White House had been heavily involved in the negotiations from the start. 'They want to go out and say the President's being unrealistic,' Mullin said. 'But this was never about making a deal.' With the Senate now gone until September, Republican leaders are already threatening to change Senate rules to break the logjam when they return. 'I think they're desperately in need of change,' Thune said of Senate rules following the breakdown of negotiations. 'I think that the last six months have demonstrated that this process, nominations is broken. And so I expect there will be some good robust conversations about that.' Schumer responded sharply, warning that Republicans will need Democratic votes to fund the government this fall and that any unilateral rule changes would be a 'huge mistake'. 'Donald Trump tried to bully us, go around us, threaten us, call us names, but he got nothing,' Schumer said. It's the first time in recent history that the minority party hasn't allowed at least some quick confirmations. Thune has already kept the Senate in session for more days, and with longer hours, this year to try and confirm as many of Trump's nominees as possible. This latest standoff is only the most recent escalation in the decades-long battle over judicial and executive branch confirmations. But Democrats had little desire to give in without the spending cut reversals or some other incentive, even though they too were eager to skip town after several long months of work and bitter partisan fights over legislation. Since 2013, both parties have changed Senate rules to erode the 60-vote threshold for nominees. In 2013, Democrats changed Senate rules for lower court judicial nominees to remove the 60-vote threshold for confirmations as Republicans blocked President Barack Obama's judicial picks. In 2017, Republicans did the same for Supreme Court nominees as Democrats tried to block Trump's nomination of Justice Neil Gorsuch. With Republicans unable to secure unanimous consent for Trump's nominees, each confirmation vote has required full roll calls, a grueling process that can take hours or days for each nominee. 'We have never seen nominees as flawed, as compromised, as unqualified as we have right now,' Schumer said. Trump has been demanding for weeks that Republicans cancel recess and grind through the nominations, but his fury seems to have undone whatever deal was on the table. Democrats say they remain open to resuming talks in September.
BBC News
2 hours ago
- BBC News
Mum's 'brutal' murder in her own home still a mystery 20 years on
The family of a mother who was shot in her home 20 years ago have renewed their appeals for anyone with information to come Hargreaves, 22, was asleep on the sofa when three men burst into her home in Walton, Liverpool, on 3 August 2005 and killed murderers then set fire to the home on Lambourne Road, with Ms Hargreaves' partner and two-year-old daughter, who were upstairs, having to escape through a arrested 21 people as part of their investigations, but no-one has been convicted. Two decades on, her family released a previously unshared photograph of the mother-of-three, taken at said: "Over the past 20 years, people will have talked with family and friends."A number of people were contacted by males using a phone that was stolen, along with a vehicle used in Lucy's murder."The people who received those calls, along with others, could have information which could be crucial in achieving justice for Lucy, her parents, sister, children and all her extended family and friends."We appeal directly to them to please come forward. "Now is the time." 'Time is no barrier' A comprehensive review into her murder launched by Merseyside Police two years ago is still Rubbery, head of the Serious Case Review Unit, said: "It is now 20 years since Lucy was taken from her family in the most brutal of circumstances."After carrying out the killing, the offenders ignored the cries of a toddler upstairs as they poured petrol around the house and set fire to it."Their callous and reckless actions could have claimed the lives of two more people that night, had they not escaped the flames by jumping from a window upstairs."We are as determined as ever to get justice for Lucy, whose death robbed her family of a loving mother and daughter."As with any unsolved murder, time is no barrier to our pursuit of justice for Lucy and we appeal to anyone with any information, no matter how small it may seem, to contact us."Detectives are continuing to appeal for anyone with information about a gold Lexus car, believed to have been dumped shortly after the shooting on Richard Kelly Drive, Clubmoor, by a number of men who then ran in the direction of Normandale previously said they wanted to speak to Kevin Thomas Parle, who was believed to be living abroad, and was also wanted in connection with the murder of Liam Kelly, 16, who was shot in the early hours of 19 June 2004 in Dingle, Liverpool. Listen to the best of BBC Radio Merseyside on Sounds and follow BBC Merseyside on Facebook, X, and Instagram. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.
