The Wisconsin state judge accused of impeding immigration agents at a Milwaukee courthouse last month pleaded not guilty on Thursday morning during a brief appearance in federal court.
Prosecutors have said that the judge, Hannah C. Dugan, violated federal law when she directed an undocumented defendant who was being sought by immigration agents through an alternate exit from her courtroom. Judge Dugan, who was indicted by a grand jury on Tuesday, is seeking the dismissal of the charges against her and has asserted that her actions were protected by judicial immunity.
A lawyer entered the plea on behalf of Judge Dugan, who was seated next to him in the federal courtroom on Thursday.
The Justice Department’s decision to arrest and charge a sitting state judge has drawn sharp criticism from many Democrats, lawyers and former judges, who have described the case as an attempt to intimidate the judiciary. Top Trump administration officials have defended the prosecution.
“It doesn’t matter what line of work you are in, if you break the law, we will follow the facts and we will prosecute you,” Attorney General Pam Bondi has said about the case.
The prosecution of Judge Dugan quickly became synonymous with the Trump administration’s broader immigration crackdown, and its warnings to local officials that they must not stand in the way of deportation efforts. Since President Trump returned to office, the Justice Department has sued state and local governments that limit cooperation with immigration agents and has announced investigations of some elected Democrats over their immigration policies.
Judge Dugan had been operating far from those debates, presiding over local cases in a sparsely decorated courtroom at the Milwaukee County Courthouse Complex. When several federal agents turned up outside her courtroom on April 18, they were not looking for her.
Those officers, who came from different federal agencies, had told courthouse personnel about their presence and their plans to arrest a man, Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, after he appeared in Judge Dugan’s courtroom in a domestic abuse case. They have said in court filings that Mr. Flores-Ruiz, who is from Mexico, had previously been removed from the United States and had re-entered the country without permission.
When Judge Dugan became aware of the federal agents, a charging document said, she became “visibly upset and had a confrontational, angry demeanor.” According to the criminal complaint, the judge confronted the agents and told them to talk to the chief judge of the courthouse. She then returned to her courtroom and, according to the charging document, directed Mr. Flores-Ruiz to leave the courtroom through a different exit than the public door leading directly to the hallway where agents were waiting.
“Despite having been advised of the administrative warrant for the arrest of Flores-Ruiz, Judge Dugan then escorted Flores-Ruiz and his counsel out of the courtroom through the ‘jury door,’ which leads to a nonpublic area of the courthouse,” according to the complaint, which was written by an F.B.I. agent.
Mr. Flores-Ruiz made it out of the courthouse, the charging document said, but an agent spotted him there and “a foot chase ensued,” the complaint said. A week later, Judge Dugan was arrested and charged with obstructing a proceeding of a federal agency, and concealing an individual to prevent his discovery and arrest.
On Wednesday, a day after grand jurors indicted her, Judge Dugan filed a motion seeking to have the case against her dismissed on grounds of judicial immunity. Her motion argued that “this is no ordinary criminal case, and Dugan is no ordinary criminal defendant,” and referred to the Tenth Amendment, which addresses federal and state powers.
The filing claimed that the prosecution was “virtually unprecedented and entirely unconstitutional.”
Earlier this month, more than 150 former state and federal judges signed a letter to Ms. Bondi calling the arrest of Judge Dugan an attempt to intimidate the judiciary.
“This cynical effort undermines the rule of law,” that letter said, “and destroys the trust the American people have in the nation’s judges to administer justice in the courtrooms and in the halls of justice across the land.”
Judge Dugan has been temporarily removed from the bench by the Wisconsin Supreme Court while the case against her proceeds. Another state judge is hearing the cases she was handling in the wood-paneled courtroom where she used to preside. A sign on the courtroom door still invites lawyers to arrange meetings by Zoom for defendants who “feel unsafe coming to the courthouse.”
Mitch Smith is a Chicago-based national correspondent for The Times, covering the Midwest and Great Plains.
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