Federal Judge Won't Vacate Dugan Conviction
Source: Urban Milwaukee
Apr 6th, 2026 06:13 pm
U.S. District Court Judge Lynn Adelman issued a decision Monday denying a motion to vacate the federal criminal conviction against former Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan.
Dugan was convicted on one count of felony obstruction in 2025 following an incident at the Milwaukee County Courthouse. Federal agents went to the courthouse that day to arrest Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, an undocumented immigrant appearing in Dugan’s courtroom on criminal charges. She sent Flores-Ruiz out a side door of her courtroom after learning federal immigration agents were in the hallway. The government alleged she was trying to help him evade arrest.
During a four-day trial, federal prosecutors argued that Dugan knowingly obstructed the arrest and tried to conceal Flores-Ruiz. Her defense argued Dugan was acting under widespread confusion and uncertainty in the courthouse about how to handle Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in the wake of previous arrests that shocked courthouse personnel and the wider community. On Dec. 18, after a four-day trial, a jury found Dugan guilty on one count of obstruction of a federal deportation proceeding and not guilty on one count of concealing an individual from arrest.
After the conviction, Dugan’s legal team filed motions asking Adelman to vacate the conviction and seeking a new trial. They argued ICE did not have a legal right to make an arrest in the courthouse that day, and that she should not have been convicted on the charge of obstruction because she didn’t know the agents were there to arrest Flores-Ruiz.
Read more: https://urbanmilwaukee.com/2026/04/06/federal-judge-wont-vacate-dugan-conviction/
REFERENCES
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