Judge fines former Milwaukee County judge $5,000, avoids prison time

A federal judge fined former Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan $5,000 on Wednesday and spared her prison time, ending a case that put a courthouse, an immigration arrest and judicial independence on a direct collision course. U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman also declined to impose probation on the 67-year-old former judge.

Dugan had faced sentencing in Milwaukee after a jury convicted her in December 2025 of felony obstruction and acquitted her on a separate count of concealing an individual to prevent arrest. Prosecutors brought the case over an April 18, 2025, confrontation at the Milwaukee County Courthouse, where federal agents were trying to arrest Eduardo Flores-Ruiz as he appeared in Dugan’s courtroom on a battery charge. Prosecutors said Dugan directed the agents to the chief judge’s office and then sent Flores-Ruiz and his attorney out a non-public door; agents later arrested Flores-Ruiz outside the courthouse after a foot chase.

The case became a flashpoint in the broader fight over President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement strategy and the use of courthouses as sites for arrests. Federal prosecutors sought a sentence of 15 to 21 months in prison, while the defense asked for no prison time. Dugan had faced a maximum penalty of five years behind bars.

Adelman said prison was unnecessary, pointing to Dugan’s record of public service and her lack of prior criminal history. The sentence left her with a $5,000 financial penalty but no incarceration and no supervised probation, a result that narrowed the punishment to the conduct itself rather than any wider claim of public corruption. Dugan resigned from the bench after her conviction in December 2025, after nine years as a Milwaukee County judge, and had 14 days after sentencing to decide whether to appeal.

The outcome lands as federal immigration arrests continue to push into local courtrooms and force judges, clerks and courthouse security to navigate overlapping obligations to the justice system and federal agents. In Dugan’s case, the criminal conviction stood, but Adelman drew a line at prison, signaling that the court saw a serious mistake made in the moment rather than conduct warranting incarceration.