Milwaukee Judge Dugan Claims She Was Following Orders in Helping Illegal Alien Flee Feds

County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan, the far-left Democratic judge who helped an illegal alien escape her courtroom in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has come up with a not-so-novel defense: I was just following orders.

Dugan claims that she was following a policy set down by the court’s chief judge on April 18, when she told Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents trying to arrest Mexican illegal Eduardo Flores-Ruiz to see the chief judge before doing so.

Given that the video shows Dugan hustling Flores-Ruiz out of the courtroom through a jury-room door, the defense might not work. But even if it does, it doesn’t much matter. 

ICE has deported Florez-Ruiz, a violent goon.

Foiled Escape

Video of the action in the courthouse clearly shows Dugan helping Flores-Ruiz, a violent criminal, depart the scene. That forced FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, and immigration agents, who went to the courthouse to pick him up, to track him down. 

When Dugan learned about the impending arrest, she “became visibly angry, commented that the situation was ‘absurd,’ left the bench, and entered chambers,” the FBI’s criminal complaint alleges. “At the time, Flores-Ruiz was seated in the gallery of the courtroom.”

Dugan angrily confronted an ICE agent, whom she ordered out of the court. When the agent said he was there to make a lawful arrest on an administration warrant, Dugan told him he needed a “judicial warrant” and must see the circuit court’s chief judge.

But Dugan didn’t stop there. Instead, she aided and abetted Flores-Ruiz’s attempted escape.

Dugan told Flores-Ruiz and his attorney to “come with me,” and “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 criminal complaint says.

Dugan told the pair to exit “through a backdoor of the courtroom,” and “[a witness] saw Judge Dugan escort Flores-Ruiz’s attorney and [Flores-Ruiz] through a non-public door near the courtroom’s jury box.”

Laws Broken

The complaint and ensuing indictment allege that Dugan broke two laws: 18 U.S. Code 1505 and 18 U.S. Code 1071. The first crime, felony obstruction, carries a five-year stretch in prison. The second, misdemeanor concealing an individual, is punishable by one to five years in prison.

After the courtroom antics, the Wisconsin Supreme Court suspended Dugan with pay.

Dugan unsuccessfully argued that judiciary immunity protects her from prosecution. To that claim, Judge Lynn Adelman of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin had an answer: No way, José.

“There is no basis for granting immunity simply because some of the allegations in the indictment describe conduct that could be considered ‘part of a judge’s job,’” wrote Adelman, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton:

As the magistrate judge noted, the same is true in the bribery prosecutions, concededly valid, where the judges were prosecuted for performing official acts intertwined with bribery.

Latest Argument

Last week, Dugan claimed that she was just being a good German; that is, following orders.

In early and mid-April before the tussle over Flores-Ruiz, her motion avers, Chief Judge Carl Ashley “circulated draft policies advising judges and court staff how they should respond to ICE arrests going forward.”

“Court personnel may not authorize the entry of immigration agency personnel into the nonpublic areas of any Court facility; and must promptly refer immigration agency personnel to their immediate supervisor or manager,” Ashley’s draft says:

If an immigration agency officer insists on access to a non-public area, the employee should not resist but should say, “I do not consent, but because I have no other choice at this time, I will not interfere with your order” and immediately contact their supervisor about the officer’s order, prepare a written statement about the encounter, and submit it to their supervisor.

“Evidence demonstrates what Judge Dugan understood she was required to do,” Dugan argues. She “had no corrupt intent…. She asked for guidance, received it, and followed it.”

Dugan’s argument faces one problem: Video that shows her leading Flores-Ruiz through a door to escape. Unfortunately for Dugan, the chief judge’s instructions don’t instruct courtroom personnel to help violent illegal aliens escape from federal agents.

Adios, Muchacho

And the previously deported Flores-Ruiz didn’t. 

Agents caught Flores-Ruiz, and the Department of Homeland sent him packing, as the agency reported on Friday.

In September, The Associated Press reported, Flores-Ruiz pleaded guilty to re-entering the country and agreed not to fight deportation if he were sentenced to time served.

Like many illegals, Flores-Ruiz, 31, is a mulish fellow who didn’t take the hint the first time he was deported. He jumped the border in 2013, DHS reported. Immigration authorities promptly sent him back where he belongs. Unfazed and unsatisfied with that outcome, he quickly returned, committing a felony.

But that wasn’t his only crime, as Attorney General Pam Bondi explained when Dugan helped him flee federal agents.

“He had beat up 2 people, a guy and a girl,” Bondi explained:

Hit the guy 30 times, knocked him to the ground, choked him, beat up a woman so badly they both had to go to the hospital.

For now, at least, Milwaukee’s Mexican stranger is gone. Whether he will stay gone, or instead commit yet another felony, remains to be seen.