Former Judge Hannah Dugan fined $5,000, won’t serve prison time, judge rules

MILWAUKEE — Former Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan won’t serve prison time or probation and has been fined $5,000, a judge determined on Wednesday during her sentencing hearing.

It comes after a jury found her guilty of obstruction last year for helping an immigrant evade federal agents.

During the hearing, Dugan’s defense team called two character witnesses to the stand to speak on her behalf, including Rev. Gregory J. O’Meara, who is also a Marquette University Law School faculty member, and Janine Geske, the retired director of the Andrew Center for Restorative Justice and a law professor at Marquette.

“Hannah models what it means to be a Christian,” O’Meara said.

Dugan herself also spoke for the first time since the case against her began.

She told U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman that she tried to “maintain a courtroom with the decorum and safety the public deserves.”

Dugan added her actions on April 18, 2025, when the incident occurred, were “not done with any malicious intent or to advance any personal interest.”

Wrapping up her remarks, Dugan said to the court she has been cast as a scofflaw and a hero, but considers herself neither of those things.

“I am a public servant who’s just trying to do my job,” Dugan said, adding that she has had to retire from public life due to threats against her and her family.

A prosecutor then acknowledged that “she has experienced collateral damage because of her conduct,” but said “judges can’t choose to disregard the law.”

Prosecutors argued that Dugan’s actions amounted to an “abuse of trust” and asked the court’s sentence to reflect that.

Adelman then spoke, saying Dugan made a bad decision and that he doesn’t believe prison is necessary.

“This is a few minutes of conduct for someone who has dedicated her life to public service,” the judge said. “It’s a marked deviation from an otherwise law-abiding life.”

He also noted that Dugan’s actions didn’t stop the ICE agents from arresting the defendant outside the courthouse.

In April of last year, federal agents showed up at the Milwaukee County Courthouse to arrest Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, who had reentered the country illegally. On that particular day, he was appearing before Dugan’s courtroom for a state battery case.

Dugan confronted the federal agents in a hallway outside the courtroom and directed them to the chief judge’s office. Following that, she helped Flores-Ruiz and his attorney out a private jury door. Agents eventually caught up to him outside the courthouse.

Dugan was later arrested and charged for her part in the incident, and she was found guilty of obstruction last December; she was acquitted on her concealment charge.

Her lawyers argued during her trial that President Donald Trump’s administration sought to “crush” Dugan in an effort to ensure judicial compliance with the ICE strategy of targeting immigrants as they showed up for court hearings.

Dugan resigned the Milwaukee County circuit judgeship she had held for nine years in January amid threats of impeachment from Republican state lawmakers who labeled her an activist judge. In her resignation letter, she said her prosecution threatened “the independence of our judiciary.” 

Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, who has the backing of Trump in his race for governor, urged authorities to “lock her up” in a social media post following her conviction.