Clinton Judge Gives Judge Who Helped Illegal Alien Escape Feds Small Fine, No Prison Time

Former Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan, who aided and abetted the escape of a violent illegal alien from her courthouse when federal agents tried to arrest him, won’t spend a day in jail.

Indeed, federal U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman ruled, Dugan was just a misguided girl who let her compassion get in the way of common sense. Thus, despite helping the Mexican goon nearly slip away from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, Dugan will waltz away without any prison time, with only a measly $5,000 fine.

The reason from Adelman: Dugan helped the poor.

Felony Obstruction

The end of Dugan’s legal career — she was forced to quit her job as a judge after Wisconsin’s Supreme Court suspended her — began on April 18 last year, when she helped previously deported Mexican Eduardo Flores-Ruiz flee from ICE, FBI, and Drug Enforcement Administration agents. Flores-Ruiz was in court to answer charges that he assaulted three people.

He beat the stuffing out of a man for “playing loud music” the night of March 12, the criminal complaint said. He struck the man 30 times, then choked him and assaulted two others when they tried to intervene. 

When the agents showed up at the courthouse to arrest Flores-Ruiz, Dugan suddenly became his public defender, becoming “visibly angry,” the criminal complaint against her recounted. Dugan angrily confronted an ICE agent, whom she ordered out of the court. When the agent said he was there to make a lawful arrest on an administration warrant, Dugan told him he needed a “judicial warrant” and must see the circuit court’s chief judge.

Dugan told Flores-Ruiz and his attorney to “come with me.” Then she “escorted Flores-Ruiz and his counsel out of the courtroom through the ‘jury door,’ which leads to a nonpublic area of the courthouse,” the complaint explained. She told the pair to exit “through a backdoor of the courtroom,” and “[a witness] saw Judge Dugan escort Flores-Ruiz’s attorney and [Flores-Ruiz] through a non-public door near the courtroom’s jury box.”

Video of the action clearly shows Dugan helping Flores-Ruiz depart the scene.

In December, a jury found Dugan guilty of obstruction.

Why Dugan wasn’t charged under 8 U.S. Code 1324, bringing and harboring an illegal, is unclear. That law covers “anyone” who,

knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that an alien has come to, entered, or remains in the United States in violation of law, transports, or moves or attempts to transport or move such alien within the United States by means of transportation or otherwise, in furtherance of such violation of law;

[or who,] knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that an alien has come to, entered, or remains in the United States in violation of law, conceals, harbors, or shields from detection, or attempts to conceal, harbor, or shield from detection, such alien in any place, including any building or any means of transportation.

Guilty as Hell, Free as a Bird

Yet, despite endangering not only the lives of the federal agents but also the lives of those Flores-Ruiz might have attacked during his escape, Dugan, 67, will skate away from prison time.

Adelman “said prison and probation were unnecessary, noting Dugan has lived a life of public service and is not at risk of re-offending,” Milwaukee’s Journal Sentinel reported:

“This is the case of a good person, upset by immigration enforcement in this country, a sentiment widely shared, making a bad decision in the moment,” said Adelman.

He said his sentence was fitting for “a few minutes of conduct” by a person who has dedicated her life to helping the poor.

Appointed by President Bill Clinton, Adelman said Dugan had “suffered” enough. She lost her job, after all, and has had “to move” and “[withdraw from] public life, which amounts to ‘significant punishment’ regardless of his sentence.”

“Dugan’s reckless and illegal actions … created unnecessary risks for all involved,” complained First Assistant U.S. Attorney Brad Schimel. “For that there needed to be serious consequences.”

The sentence should have been at least 15 to 20 months in jail, per federal guidelines. She could have landed as much as five years.

Yet walking away with a slap on the wrist isn’t good enough for Dugan. She is appealing her conviction. Apparently, helping an illegal alien escape federal agents isn’t a crime in her law book.

Amusingly, “former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Janine Geske, who is now on faculty at Marquette Law School, and Gregory P. O’Meara, rector of the Marquette University Jesuit Community, spoke on Dugan’s behalf,” the newspaper reported:

They both noted her decades of service to the underserved, fueled by her Catholic faith.

Whether Dugan is “fueled by her Catholic faith” to oppose the mass murder of the unborn was left unsaid, but O’Meara added that “Hannah models what it means to be a Christian. Despite being disappointed, I believe her faith has deepened.”

During an interview with the late David Horowitz, a former communist who became something of a conservative, communist terrorist Bill Ayers “reviewed his activities as a terrorist for my tape recorder,” Horowitz wrote:

When he was done, he broke into a broad, Jack Horner grin and summed up his experience: “Guilty as hell. Free as a bird. America is a great country.”

Now Dugan can mirthfully warble the same tune.