Milwaukee County Judge Dugan moves to dismiss federal indictment
Judge Dugan moves to dismiss federal charges
Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan on Wednesday filed a motion to dismiss the federal indictment that had been filed against.
MILWAUKEE - Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan on Wednesday filed a motion to dismiss the federal indictment that had been filed against her the previous day.
What they're saying:
In her motion to dismiss, Dugan claims she has judicial immunity – that she can't be prosecuted for actions taken as a judge. Her motion calls the prosecution against her "unprecedented and unconstitutional" and argues it violated the 10th Amendment.
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The motion to dismiss filing read, in part:
"Dugan is a Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge. She was arrested and indicted for actions allegedly taken in and in the immediate vicinity of her courtroom, involving a person appearing before her as a party. The government’s prosecution of Judge Dugan is virtually unprecedented and entirely unconstitutional—it violates the Tenth Amendment and fundamental principles of federalism and comity reflected in that amendment and in the very structure of the United States Constitution.
"The problems with this prosecution are legion, but most immediately, the government cannot prosecute Judge Dugan because she is entitled to judicial immunity for her official acts. Immunity is not a defense to the prosecution to be determined later by a jury or court; it is an absolute bar to the prosecution at the outset."
Dig deeper:
Howard Schweber, a University of Wisconsin Law School professor emeritus, said what's unprecedented in the case is Dugan's attempt to have the case dismissed.
"There is criminal immunity for judicial actions, like a ruling in a case. The federal prosecutor can’t say: ‘This state court judge found somebody innocent, we’re going to charge them with a crime,’" he said. "But, where it’s not a judicial action, where it’s a ministerial action, like, for example, ordering people out of the courtroom, deciding who can and can’t be in the courtroom – those are considered ministerial actions. And there’s never been a tradition of criminal immunity for ministerial actions."
What's next:
Dugan will have to enter a plea at Thursday's arraignment hearing.
Hannah Dugan
Missed court date
Dig deeper:
Eduardo Flores Ruiz, the man who Dugan is accused of helping to evade arrest, missed a court date on Wednesday for domestic abuse charges after U.S. Immigration and Customs agents did not bring him to the courthouse.
"Essentially, when somebody is detained at the courthouse, let's say they have a criminal charge pending and they're taken into ICE custody, the federal authorities will refuse then to transport the individual back for their state court hearings," said Marc Christopher, an immigration defense attorney.
"The difference, though, we're seeing is that, again, the Biden and Obama administrations were not detaining individuals for very minor offenses, the driving without a license, maybe the first-offense disorderly conducts, those types of things."
Eduardo Flores Ruiz
The Wisconsin Supreme Court suspended Dugan indefinitely after she was charged. The judge who is now hearing Flores Ruiz's case in Dugan's absence ordered the district attorney's office to "investigate what needs to be done to have Mr. Ruiz appear either in person or via Zoom, and frankly whether the federal government will cooperate in producing Mr. Ruiz for future court dates."
Grand jury indictment
The backstory:
A federal grand jury indicted Dugan on Tuesday, May 13. She's accused of helping an undocumented man evade arrest by immigration agents at the county courthouse in April.
In Milwaukee County, Eduardo Flores Ruiz is accused of misdemeanor battery. He was in Dugan’s courtroom for a hearing in the case on April 18.
Federal filings said Dugan was made aware that federal agents were present outside her courtroom to arrest Flores Ruiz, a Mexican national previously removed from the U.S. in 2013, according to federal filings.
Filings said Dugan left the bench and told the agents to go to the chief judge’s office down the hall. While there, federal prosecutors said a courtroom deputy told investigators Dugan returned to the bench and was "pushing" Flores Ruiz’s case through.
Federal prosecutors said Dugan then later escorted Flores Ruiz through a jury door, and then told de la Rosa she and her client the two should leave through the back door of the courtroom.
According to federal prosecutors, Flores Ruiz reentered the public hallway, where they were spotted by two DEA agents. The agents said they watched Flores Ruiz and de la Rosa walk "briskly" toward an elevator bank on the opposite end of the floor from Dugan’s courtroom and rode the elevator down to the first floor along with one of the agents. Filings said Flores Ruiz was later arrested by federal agents, outside the courthouse, after a short foot chase.
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A week later, federal prosecutors charged Dugan in a federal complaint with obstructing or impeding a federal agency and concealing Flores Ruiz to avoid discovery and arrest.
Dugan was arrested by federal agents at the Milwaukee County Courthouse on April 25. She was brought before a federal magistrate judge that morning.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court later suspended Dugan indefinitely after she was arrested and charged. Retired circuit court judge and former prosecutor David Feiss was brought in to handle Dugan’s calendar.
Feiss granted de la Rosa’s motion to withdraw as Flores Ruiz’ defense attorney in the county criminal case for a conflict of interest. Flores Ruiz has since been indicted by a federal grand jury of re-entering the U.S. after being previously deported.
The Source: The information in this post was provided in part by the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Wisconsin.