Judge Slapped With Charges For Helping Illegal Evade Feds

A federal grand jury indicted a Wisconsin judge on Tuesday for allegedly aiding an illegal immigrant in an attempt to avoid law enforcement.

Authorities arrested Judge Hannah Dugan of the Milwaukee County Circuit Court last month after officials say she tried to help an illegal immigrant evade immigration authorities. Dugan’s indictment charged her with concealing a person from arrest and obstruction of proceedings.

“Judge Hannah C. Dugan has committed herself to the rule of law and the principles of due process for her entire career as a lawyer and a judge,” her lawyers said in a statement, according to The New York Times. “Judge Dugan asserts her innocence and looks forward to being vindicated in court.”

Dugan’s legal team is expected to enter a plea on Thursday, according to the New York Post. The Wisconsin Supreme Court has suspended Dugan from the bench while her case progresses.

Dugan allegedly aided Mexican national Eduardo Flores-Ruiz in his attempts to evade federal authorities.

Law enforcement officials gathered in a hallway outside of Dugan’s courtroom last month waiting for Flores-Ruiz to exit. Dugan confronted the officials while she was “visibly upset and had a confrontational, angry demeanor,” according to the criminal complaint. The judge then led Flores-Ruiz out a different exit from her courtroom instead of the public exit in an attempt to evade law enforcement.

“Despite having been advised of the administrative warrant for the arrest of Flores-Ruiz, Judge Dugan then escorted Flores-Ruiz and his counsel out of the courtroom through the ‘jury door,’ which leads to a nonpublic area of the courthouse,” the indictment says.

The Trump administration has defended Dugan’s arrest as an example of an equal standard of law for all.

“Shame on her,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said last month. “It was a domestic violence case, of all cases, and she was protecting a criminal defendant over victims of crime.”