Former Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan will be sentenced in June after being found guilty of obstruction for helping an illegal immigrant evade arrest, a federal judge said Thursday.
U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, ordered Dugan to be sentenced on June 3 in a federal courthouse in Milwaukee. Dugan was found guilty of one obstruction charge by a jury in federal court in December for helping an illegal immigrant who was before her court escape out a back door once she realized federal immigration officers were there to arrest him.
Adelman’s order scheduling Dugan’s sentencing comes days after the federal judge denied Dugan’s bid for a new trial and an acquittal. Dugan’s conviction carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison, but because she has no prior criminal record, she is unlikely to get close to the maximum sentence.
Dugan resigned from her position on the state court this year, shortly after being found guilty of obstruction. She was suspended from the court shortly after her arrest in April 2025. Her lawyers have vowed to appeal the guilty ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
CONVICTED MILWAUKEE JUDGE RESIGNS WHILE APPEALING CHARGE FOR HELPING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT ESCAPE
The former judge’s conviction stems from helping Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, an illegal immigrant who appeared last April before her court, and his lawyer exit her courtroom via a side door after federal immigration officers appeared at the courthouse to arrest him. Flores-Ruiz was arrested shortly after leaving the courthouse, while Dugan was arrested roughly a week later.
Dugan’s arrest was touted by the Justice Department as a high-profile example that “no one is above the law,” as FBI Director Kash Patel asserted in a post about the state judge at the time of her arrest.
