MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The trial of a Wisconsin judge accused of helping an immigrant evade federal authorities began Monday, an arrest of a public official that became an extraordinary moment in President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan is charged with obstruction and concealment. The government's case is expected to run through at least Thursday, with roughly two dozen witnesses lined up to testify.
Jurors settled into their seats for opening statements, first by the prosecutor. Dugan faces up to six years in prison if convicted on both counts.
The trial will center on what happened when Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, 31, reported to the county courthouse in April for a hearing on a state crime.
Democrats say Trump is looking to make an example of Dugan to blunt judicial opposition to immigration arrests. Dugan told police she and her family found threatening flyers at their homes this spring. The administration has branded her an activist judge.
Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, a fierce Trump loyalist running for Wisconsin governor next year, urged authorities to “lock her up” in a recent tweet.
According to the FBI, immigration authorities learned last spring that Flores-Ruiz had reentered the United States in 2013 and was charged in March with battery in Milwaukee. He was scheduled to appear in Dugan's court on that case on April 18.
Agents traveled to the courthouse that day to arrest him, but Dugan's courtroom deputy told them to wait outside the courtroom and arrest him after the hearing, the FBI says. When Dugan learned that agents were waiting in the hallway, she left the courtroom and angrily told them to consult with the chief judge. As they walked away, she went back inside the courtroom and led Flores-Ruiz out through a back jury door that led to a public corridor, according to the affidavit.
Agents followed Flores-Ruiz outside the building and arrested him after a foot chase. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced in November that he had been deported after he pleaded no contest in the battery case and was sentenced to time served.
Prosecutors charged Dugan on April 24 with obstruction and concealing an individual to prevent arrest. The state Supreme Court eventually suspended her.
Dugan tried to persuade U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman to dismiss the charges, arguing in filings that she's immune from prosecution because she was acting in her official capacity as a judge. Adelman refused, ruling in September that there's no firmly established immunity for judges from criminal prosecution.
Dugan also argues that she was following courthouse protocols on immigration arrests and wasn't trying to disrupt agents. According to her filings, Milwaukee County Chief Judge Carl Ashley sent out a draft policy about a week before Flores-Ruiz was arrested that barred immigration officers from executing administrative warrants in nonpublic areas and required court personnel to refer any agents to a supervisor.
