The judge was charged in a two-count federal indictment alleging obstruction of official DHS removal proceedings and knowingly concealing the man from authorities.
The judge was charged in a two-count federal indictment alleging obstruction of official DHS removal proceedings and knowingly concealing the man from authorities.
The undocumented man allegedly helped by a Minnesota judge to evade arrest at a Milwaukee courthouse has been deported, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan was arrested in April and charged in a two-count federal indictment alleging obstruction of official DHS removal proceedings and knowingly concealing the man, Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, from immigration authorities.
According to federal prosecutors, Dugan encountered federal agents who were at the Milwaukee County Circuit Court on April 18 to arrest Flores-Ruiz, who was appearing in her courtroom on a battery charge.
Prosecutors say that after speaking to the agents, Dugan directed them to the chief judge’s office down the hall and then sent Flores-Ruiz and his attorney out a non-public door in an alleged attempt, authorities claim, to help him evade arrest on immigration violations.
Flores-Ruiz, a native of Mexico, was later arrested and charged with unlawful reentry into the U.S.
He was sentenced to time served earlier this month after pleading guilty to the charge, federal court records show.
ICE removed him on Thursday, according to DHS.
DHS said Flores-Ruiz illegally entered the U.S. twice and has a “violent criminal history including strangulation and suffocation, battery, and domestic abuse.”
“Judge Hannah Dugan’s actions to obstruct this violent criminal’s arrest take ‘activist judge’ to a whole new meaning,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement Friday. “Thanks to the brave men and women of ICE law enforcement, this criminal is OUT of our country.
Dugan has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Her trial is scheduled to begin on Dec. 15.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court suspended Dugan in the wake of her arrest, stating in an order that it found it was “in the public interest that she be temporarily relieved of her official duties.”
