A federal jury convicted a Wisconsin judge Thursday night of a felony obstruction charge after she tried to help an illegal immigrant escape ICE officers at her courthouse earlier this year.
The jury acquitted Judge Hannah Dugan of a misdemeanor charge of concealment to prevent arrest.
Her defense team indicated it would attempt an appeal, but for now she becomes a high-profile triumph for the Trump administration in its battle to overcome unprecedented resistance to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Dugan was on the bench in her Milwaukee courtroom on April 18 when an illegal immigrant, Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, was to appear before her on battery charges. Prosecutors said when Dugan learned ICE officers were there to arrest him at the conclusion of her proceedings, she told them to go talk to the chief judge.
Then she cut her proceeding short and led Mr. Flores-Ruiz out a non-public side door.
A fellow judge testified that Dugan later came to her and told her she had “tried to help that guy.”
Mr. Flores-Ruiz made it out of the courthouse but was chased down by members of the arrest team, which also included FBI and Customs and Border Protection personnel.
Dugan had argued that since the immigration arrest was a civil matter, it didn’t rise to the level of a proceeding that could be obstructed by a sitting judge.
“Whatever the accuracy of the government’s claim that there was a pending proceeding against E.F.R., he was out of reach in that courthouse on that day,” they argued in court briefs this week. “In that place and on that day, the federal agents had no right to execute that civil warrant or otherwise serve civil process at all.”
They sought to have the case dismissed, but U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman rejected that.
After the verdict, Dugan’s legal team laid out its plans for an appeal.
“While we are disappointed in today’s outcome, the failure of the prosecution to secure convictions on both counts demonstrates the opportunity we have to clear Judge Dugan’s name and show she did nothing wrong in this matter,” the defense team said. “We have planned for this potential outcome and our defense of Judge Dugan is just beginning.”
They also made a plea for people to donate to cover Dugan’s legal costs.
Democrats had rallied to defend Dugan at the time of the incident.
Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, called the charges against her “chilling” and part of “Trump’s authoritarian campaign of trying to bully, intimidate and impeach judges who won’t follow his dictates.”
But Attorney General Pam Bondi had said the case was the wrong place for Democrats to take a stand.
She said Mr. Flores-Ruiz had been deported once before, in 2013, and had no right to come back. Officers were trying to reinstate that previous deportation.
Ms. Bondi also said the local case against Mr. Flores-Ruiz accused him of beating a man and woman badly enough to send them to the hospital.
He was deported last month, after pleading guilty to a criminal charge of illegal reentry and earning a sentence of time served, according to The Associated Press.