A veteran Wisconsin judge was arrested Friday for allegedly helping a Mexican illegal migrant evade ICE agents in her courtroom, the head of the FBI announced.
Judge Hannah Dugan, who has been on the Milwaukee County bench for nearly a decade, was nabbed on an obstruction charge after she was accused of interfering in Eduardo Flores Ruiz’s arrest last week.
“We believe Judge Dugan intentionally misdirected federal agents away from the subject to be arrested in her courthouse, Eduardo Flores Ruiz, allowing the subject — an illegal alien — to evade arrest,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in an X post.
“Thankfully our agents chased down the perp on foot and he’s been in custody since, but the Judge’s obstruction created increased danger to the public.”
Patel later deleted the X post announcing Dugan’s arrest, for reasons that were not immediately clear.”
Flores Ruiz, 30, appeared before Dugan April 18 for a pre-trial conference on three misdemeanor battery charges.
ICE agents showed up outside the courtroom with a federal warrant for Flores Ruiz’s arrest but were asked by court officials to wait until the hearing had ended before cuffing him, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported, citing law enforcement sources.
Before the agents could enter, Dugan allegedly directed Flores Ruiz and his lawyer out a side door and through a private hallway to avoid apprehension.
Dugan, who graduated from University of Wisconsin Law School in 1986, declined to comment after it emerged the feds were probing her alleged interference.
Flores Ruiz, meanwhile, is now being held in ICE custody at the Dodge Detention Facility in Juneau, about 50 miles northwest of Milwaukee, records show.
