A former Wisconsin judge helped a wanted illegal alien evade federal agents inside her own courthouse, got convicted of felony obstruction, and walked out with a fine.

No prison. Just $5,000.

Former Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan was sentenced on July 8, 2026, and the number that matters is zero days incarcerated.

Fox News reports that Dugan was ordered to pay the $5,000 fine and will serve no prison time, despite the felony conviction.

The felony obstruction count carried up to five years. Federal prosecutors asked for a sentence between 15 and 21 months.

Fox also notes she was convicted of felony obstruction and acquitted of concealing an individual to prevent arrest. That split verdict still left Dugan with a serious federal conviction tied to a courthouse immigration arrest.

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The case traces back to April 18, 2025. ICE agents came to the Milwaukee County courthouse because Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, a Mexican national, had illegally reentered the country after being removed and was scheduled for a state battery hearing.

According to Fox, prosecutors said Dugan sent agents off to the chief judge’s office and steered Flores-Ruiz and his attorney out a back door. Agents caught him anyway after a brief foot chase.

The Justice Department laid out the sequence when it announced the criminal complaint in April 2025.

Federal agents were trying to execute a lawful arrest warrant for Flores-Ruiz, a man who had already been removed once and was newly charged in Milwaukee County with domestic abuse-related battery.

DOJ said agents planned a simple, public hallway arrest after his court appearance. Dugan allegedly confronted them, ordered them away, told them they needed a judicial warrant, and demanded they head to the chief judge’s office.

Then, according to DOJ, she personally escorted Flores-Ruiz and his attorney out through a restricted jury-door exit. DOJ said that move directly resulted in Flores-Ruiz temporarily avoiding federal custody before agents caught him outside after a foot chase.

This was bigger than a paperwork fight. A judge used her authority to move a previously deported illegal alien away from the agents sent to arrest him.

Local coverage from Wisconsin Public Radio fills in what the courtroom actually heard.

Flores-Ruiz was set for a hearing in Dugan’s courtroom on misdemeanor domestic battery charges. Federal agents arrived with a warrant and said they planned to arrest him in the hallway afterward.

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Prosecutors said Dugan deliberately blew up that plan, sending some agents to the chief judge’s office while she directed Flores-Ruiz and his lawyer out a side door normally used for jurors and told them the hearing would be rescheduled virtually.

WPR reports that courtroom audio played at trial captured Dugan saying she would take the heat. Prosecutors used that audio to argue she knew exactly what she was doing when the ICE arrest plan was derailed.

She took the heat. It cost her $5,000.

AP reported that U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman imposed the sentence and pointed to Dugan’s otherwise law-abiding life and public service.

Federal sentencing guidelines called for 15 to 21 months, but Adelman was not bound by them and went a different direction. AP also reported that prosecutors argued Dugan violated her oath and put law enforcement and the public at risk.

Dugan’s defense leaned heavily on the personal and professional consequences she had already faced. Adelman also noted that the agents still arrested Flores-Ruiz outside the courthouse.

That is the part many Americans will find hard to swallow: the agents eventually got their man, but only after a judge was convicted of obstructing the arrest in the first place.

Dugan was convicted in December 2025. She resigned her Milwaukee County judgeship in January 2026 amid impeachment threats from Wisconsin Republicans and public backlash.

In court, she said she did not act with malicious intent and intended to return to public service. Her lawyer says they still plan to appeal the felony obstruction conviction.

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Flores-Ruiz, the man at the center of it all, was deported in November 2025.

Prosecutors put it plainly at sentencing: Dugan violated her oath and put law enforcement and the public at risk.

A regular citizen convicted of obstructing federal agents mid-arrest would be looking at a very different July than the one Hannah Dugan just had.

The felony conviction stands. The punishment, though, looks like a slap on the wrist.

The public consequence may now rest mostly in the felony conviction, the resignation, and the political backlash.

For a courthouse obstruction case involving a previously deported illegal alien, that is a very thin ending.

This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.

 

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