Federal prosecutors are challenging Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan’s motion to dismiss the case against her based on judicial immunity, arguing it is flawed and unsupported by legal precedent.
In a June 9 filing, attorneys for the U.S. Department of Justice urged a federal judge to reject Dugan’s motion to dismiss. They say doing so would be “unprecedented” and allow judges to be above the law.
“Such a ruling would give state court judges carte blanche to interfere with valid law enforcement actions by federal agents in public hallways of a courthouse, and perhaps even beyond,” Justice Department attorneys argued, as Minneapolis’s KSTP 5 Eyewitness News reported.
A federal grand jury indicted Dugan on May 13 for allegedly helping an illegal immigrant evade U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in the Milwaukee County Courthouse.
Her lawyers filed to dismiss the case, saying Dugan has “absolute immunity” as a judge for official acts in her courtroom and also that the prosecution violates the U.S. Constitution.
On Monday, federal prosecutors filed a response to her motion to dismiss, noting that “the Supreme Court has made clear that judges are not immune from criminal liability,” Fox News Digital reported.
On May 15, after the federal indictment, Dugan pleaded not guilty to the federal charges against her. Dugan faces charges for felony obstruction of a federal proceeding and concealing a person to help them avoid arrest, which is a misdemeanor.
In this week’s government filing, prosecutors maintain that Dugan’s actions in allegedly aiding a suspect’s escape exceeded her judicial duties and thus immunity does not apply.
Prosecutors also rejected Dugan’s defense argument that the case is an example of federal overreach.
“Dugan’s desired ruling would, in essence, say that judges are ‘above the law,’ and uniquely entitled to interfere with federal law enforcement,” the 24-page response says per the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
The case stems from an incident in her courtroom and the ICE detainment of previously deported Mexican national Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, 31, at the Milwaukee County Courthouse on April 18. He was there for a pre-trial hearing related to three counts of battery, domestic abuse, and infliction of physical pain or injury.
Federal prosecutors allege Dugan deliberately helped Flores-Ruiz and his attorney evade ICE, per the complaint. When she learned federal agents had a valid immigration arrest warrant for Flores-Ruiz, Dugan reportedly interfered and told agents that they needed a judicial warrant, instructing them to go to the chief judge’s office.
Prosecutors say evidence also shows Dugan directing agents to the chief judge’s office even while knowing he was out, then she “quickly returned to her courtroom and, among other things, directed [Florez-Ruiz’s] attorney to ‘take your client out and come back and get a date; and then to go through the jury door and down the stairs’ before physically escorting [Flores-Ruiz] and his attorney into a non-public hallway with access to a stairwell that led to a courthouse exit,” filings say.
Courthouse surveillance footage released by Milwaukee County in response to an open records request appears to show Dugan, wearing her black robe, confronting ICE agents in the courthouse hallway.
Dugan allegedly chose not to hold a hearing for Flores-Ruiz and “personally escorted” the suspect and his attorney through a private exit, while the victims of his alleged crimes were in the courthouse at the time, the Justice Department said in a press release.
“Put simply, nothing in the indictment or the anticipated evidence at trial supports Dugan’s assertion that agents ‘disrupted’ the court’s docket; instead, all events arose from Dugan’s unilateral, non-judicial, and unofficial actions in obstructing a federal immigration matter over which she, as a Wisconsin state judge, had no authority,” the document reads. “At the very least, for purposes of deciding this motion, Dugan’s claims to the contrary find no support in the indictment and should be rejected.”
One of Dugan’s defense attorneys, Dean Strang, told Fox News Digital that her counsel has a “good reply” to prosecutors’ latest filing, but her team is waiting until their reply brief, due next Monday, June 16, to make it.
A trial date has been set for July 21 before U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman, another activist judge appointed by President Bill Clinton who was “selected through a random computer-based process” to hear the case against Dugan, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel previously reported.
Her attorneys say she’s innocent, maintaining she was acting in her official capacity as a judge and therefore is immune to prosecution. On May 29, Dugan’s legal team filed a memorandum in support of a motion to dismiss the case, arguing her federal prosecution is improper, citing more than 400 years of legal precedent that they say supports their position.
The federal prosecutors’ filing came in response to Dugan’s motion to dismiss the case on the basis she has “absolute immunity” as a judge for official acts in her courtroom.
Her attorneys also claim government overstepped its authority by arresting and charging her, violating her 10th Amendment rights and the principle of separation of powers, according to court documents filed in late May.
Dugan’s defense team also accused the federal government of violating Wisconsin’s sovereignty by disrupting a state courtroom and prosecuting a state judge.
Her legal team includes former U.S. Attorney Steve Biskupic and former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement. Both were appointed by Republican presidents. She has also hired prominent attorneys in Milwaukee and Madison.
