Hannah Dugan, the Milwaukee County judge arrested Friday by the FBI for allegedly obstructing federal authorities who were seeking to detain an undocumented immigrant, was a longtime social justice advocate before she took the bench.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security suggested in a statement that Dugan is an “activist judge.” A statement issued on the judge’s behalf following her dramatic arrest said Dugan “has committed herself to the rule of law and the principles of due process for her entire career as a lawyer and a judge.”

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Dugan was hit with a criminal complaint Friday alleging that on April 18, she helped Eduardo Flores-Ruiz and his attorney exit her courtroom when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents showed up to arrest a man they said was an undocumented immigrant.

Her alleged actions were cheered by immigration advocates who rallied outside of the courthouse, with speakers leading the protesters in chants of “due process is not negotiable” and “drop the charges.”

“We see nothing wrong with what she did,” said Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director of Voces de la Frontera. She said her organization knows the judge as someone who defends people in the court system. “She’s someone who acted on her conscience and was standing up for due process rights for herself and others,” she said.

Dugan was born in 1959, according to the criminal complaint against her, and was first elected to the Milwaukee County Circuit Court in 2016. She was re-elected to a second six-year term in 2022. The court’s website says she presides over misdemeanor cases.

“Justice is hard work. I love the challenge of such hard work,” she told the Milwaukee Independent in a 2016 profile.

Dugan has a bachelor of arts degree in legal studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a master’s degree in American studies from Boston College, according to a biography on Ballotpedia.

She earned her law degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School, and afterward worked in Milwaukee for the Legal Aid Society, which provides services for people who can’t afford lawyers.

“As a Legal Aid attorney I would listen for other legal concerns besides the reason a client would ask for representation. So while my client representation might have started with a ticket, it could also include housing, public benefits, family, or consumer issue and representation,” Dugan told the Milwaukee Independent.

She went on to a head up a domestic violence project “addressing the civil legal issues that are hurdles for persons attempting to leave unsafe situations” and worked on an elder law project, she told the website.

Dugan later performed work for nonprofit organizations in the Milwaukee area and served a stint as executive director of the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, according the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. A part of the group’s mission is assisting refugees in settling in the U.S.

“Nonprofit work is a great avenue to work for justice,” she told the Independent.

She later became interim director of Milwaukee’s Social Development Commission, an anti-poverty agency, and served on the board of the Nonprofit Center of Milwaukee, the Journal Sentinel reported.

In her interview with the Independent, Dugan spoke out about her faith in the rule of law.

“The rule of law is how we address our social issues, how we address our disputes, but also how we grow as people,” she said.

Dugan appeared before a federal magistrate judge on the recent charges on Friday and was released pending her next hearing on May 15.

MILWAUKEE — Documentarian Cristina Costantini has been inspired by pioneering astronaut Sally Ride since childhood.

In 2023, the stars aligned as she collaborated with National Geographic Documentary Films, Story Syndicate, and Muck Media to create a film exploring both the public and private aspects of Ride’s life—a side of her that many only discovered after her passing in 2012. Tam O’Shaughnessy, Ride’s partner of 27 years, steps into the spotlight in this 1 hour and 43-minute film to reveal the Sally Ride that many were unaware of.

Watch: Milwaukee native Cristina Costantini brings Sally Ride’s story to the big screen

Milwaukee native directs opening film for the 2025 Milwaukee Film Festival

Here is an excerpt from a conversation that Milwaukee Tonight host Shannon Sims had with Costantini in the very theater where she grew up watching documentaries—the Oriental Theater.

Shannon: “Cristina, having come off a successful run at Sundance to come home to open the film festival. How does it feel? “

Cristina: “This means the world to me to be here, to be in this theater, this is where I grew up, seeing all of the films that made me want to be a filmmaker. So it’s really a homecoming for me.”

Shannon: “What drew you to this story ?”

Cristina: ” I’ve been a huge fan of Sally since I was a little girl….I think it was simply, you know, seeing a woman in space jumpsuit, breaking the highest glass ceiling. There was something just symbolic and powerful to me. If she could do it, I’m a girl, maybe I can do big things too. I went to Golda Meir Elementary, and if you drive by on Martin Luther King, You can see there is a there’s a little Sally Ride, looking at a shuttle. And I painted that when I was in third or fourth grade, and it’s crazy that it’s still there .

“I’ve been obsessed with her for a long time, but when she passed away in 2012, I learned with the rest of the world that she was survived by her female life partner, Tam O’Shaughnessy. And I started to think at that point, you know, wow, you know, NASA was barely ready for a woman. They definitely would not have been ready for this. What was that internal struggle? And so I started to get really interested in the more interesting story of who the true Sally Ride was.”

Shannon: “What were some of the challenges in making this film, even with all of that archival video?”

Cristina: “We brought in 5000 reels from NASA, and then we had to sound sync it. All the audio was in a different building, and all the reels were in different buildings, no good system to sync them.”

Shannon: “So I read that you started out as an investigative reporter. What was it about documentary filmmaking that drew you to make the transition? “

Cristina: “I was an investigative reporter at ABC and Univision, and I really that I that’s where I picked up a camera. That’s where I learned how to tell a story, and also all the skills that go into filmmaking. You learn making news…..I grew up watching documentaries here in this theater. And I, you know, I really see them as empathy machines. They they show us what other people’s lives are like. They teach us things we could never have known, or take us to worlds we could never visit.
So I hope people you know gain empathy for this woman, Sally, and for the experiences that people who live in the shadows, or people who have had to hide something experience in their day to day.”

Digital Exclusive: Tam O’Shaughnessy, Sally Ride’s life partner talks about the premiere of ‘Sally’

Tam O’Shaughnessy talks about the new Sally Ride documentary

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A widening lead contamination crisis in Milwaukee’s public schools has left several children exposed and forced school closures, while the city navigates the fallout alone after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) denied federal aid and laid off key experts.

Julie Bosman reports for The New York Times.

In short:

• Investigators found flaking lead paint and hazardous lead dust in at least seven Milwaukee public schools; three buildings have been closed and more are expected to shut down.
• The CDC recently laid off two lead experts who had been slated to assist the city and then denied a formal request for emergency support, known as an Epi-Aid.
• Parents and advocates are pressing the school district and city leaders for failing to maintain aging facilities and provide timely responses amid a persistent lead poisoning threat.

Key quote:

“There is no bat phone anymore. I can’t pick up and call my colleagues at the CDC about lead poisoning anymore.”

— Dr. Michael Totoraitis, Milwaukee health commissioner

Why this matters:

Lead exposure remains one of the most insidious public health threats to American children, particularly in older urban areas where housing and public infrastructure predate the 1978 ban on lead-based paint. Milwaukee’s crisis reflects a broader national failure to address the legacy of lead in schools and homes. The neurotoxin, even in small amounts, can irreversibly damage brain development in children, impair learning, and increase behavioral disorders. Disproportionately affecting low-income and Black neighborhoods, lead poisoning perpetuates cycles of poverty and educational inequity. As federal agencies scale back due to budget cuts, local health departments—already stretched thin—must confront long-term environmental health problems without expert support or adequate funding. This leaves vulnerable communities with fewer defenses against preventable health hazards.

For more: Milwaukee schools scramble to manage lead crisis after CDC cuts its lead poisoning team