We have previously discussed the lack of a credible defense for Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan, who has been charged with facilitating the escape of an undocumented man being sought by federal officers in her courthouse. Indeed, despite having high-powered lawyers such as Paul Clement, her recent social media posts seem more like a pitch for jury nullification. One bright spot for Dugan was that she was assigned to U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman, a liberal Democrat who has run for prior office and has been accused of bias on the bench. However, Judge Adelman just delivered a blow to the defense by rejecting Dugan’s claim that she had judicial immunity in taking her actions.
According to the criminal complaint, a six-person arrest team (including an ICE officer, a Customs and Border Protection officer, two FBI special agents, and two DEA agents) came to the courthouse to arrest Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, a Mexican immigrant facing three misdemeanor battery counts they intended to deport.
He is accused of hitting someone 30 times during a fight that erupted over complaints that his music was too loud and assaulting three separate individuals, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
Flores-Ruiz was previously deported and then entered again illegally, a federal felony. He was issued an I-860 Notice and Order of Expedited Removal on January 16, 2013, and Flores-Ruiz was “removed to Mexico through the Nogales, Arizona, port of entry.” Not only is reentry a felony but when there is an order of expedited removal, you can be deported without any further court hearing.
After facilitating his escape, Dugan was later arrested and charged with obstructing or impeding a proceeding (18 U.S.C. 1505) and concealing an individual to prevent his arrest (18 U.S.C. 1071).
Calls for resistance and even replication have also come from colleagues on the bench. Monica Isham, a circuit judge in Sawyer County, not only defended Judge Hannah Dugan in an email to other state judges but added that she “has no intention of allowing anyone to be taken out of my courtroom by [Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents] and sent to a concentration camp.”
Recently, Dugan went public with an interview that notably lacked any discernible defense, other than stating that she helps defendants use the “backdoor” when she considers circumstances that “warrant it.”
Judge Adelman ruled on that:
“Ultimately, as the Supreme Court has stated, ‘the official seeking absolute immunity bears the burden of showing that such immunity is justified for the function in question.’ I cannot say as a matter of law that the defendant’s alleged conduct falls within even this more limited version of immunity…There is no basis for granting immunity simply because some of the allegations in the indictment describe conduct that could be considered ‘part of a judge’s job.’”
The lack of any cognizable claim in Dugan’s public pitch suggests that she might be hoping for a juror to simply vote to acquit as a visceral or political statement. This is a liberal jury pool where jury nullification must be a concern for prosecutors even though such an argument cannot be made overtly by the defense to the jurors.
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Author: jonathanturley
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