Wisconsin Supreme Court suspends judge accused of obstructing immigration agents
By Andi Babineau, CNN
(CNN) — The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a Milwaukee judge accused of obstructing immigration officials would be “temporarily prohibited from exercising the powers of a circuit court judge” while the case moves through the legal system, court records show.
Judge Hannah Dugan was arrested last week at the Milwaukee County Courthouse and faces two federal charges for obstruction and concealing an individual from arrest. She made her first appearance Friday morning and was released on her own recognizance.
“It is in the public interest that she be temporarily relieved of her official duties,” the two-page order states, noting that the state’s Supreme Court took up the matter itself “in order to uphold the public’s confidence.”
CNN has reached out to her attorneys for comment on the state Supreme Court’s decision.
In court on Friday, Dugan’s attorney said, “Judge Dugan wholeheartedly regrets and protests her arrest. It was not made in the interest of public safety,” according to the AP.
Dugan is accused of helping a defendant in her courtroom on April 18 evade immigration officials stationed to arrest him in the hallway outside.
The affidavit states Dugan “became visibly angry, commented that the situation was ‘absurd,’ left the bench, and entered chambers,” after learning the plainclothes agents were in the courthouse.
Witnesses said she confronted the federal agents in a public hallway, repeatedly demanded they leave and said they needed a different kind of warrant to make the arrest, according to court documents. She reportedly also involved the courthouse’s chief judge in the matter.
When she returned to her courtroom, witnesses told investigators she stopped the man and his attorney from exiting through the main doors into the hall and instead escorted them out through a jury door. Agents caught up with the man outside and he was arrested after a brief foot chase, the document says.
Dugan’s next court appearance is scheduled for May 15.
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