Felon Milwaukee County Judge Resigns With Guaranteed Pension

Facing up to five years in prison for helping a violent illegal immigrant escape ICE officers, Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan is resigning. But even with the felony conviction on her record, Dugan will receive a generous taxpayer-funded retirement no matter what happens next. 

A federal jury last month found Dugan guilty on the obstruction charge for the April 18 incident in which the leftist judge escorted Eduardo Flores-Ruiz and his attorney to the “jury door,” allowing the illegal alien to briefly flee from Department of Homeland Security agents. 

‘Judge Hannah Dugan is Neither’

On Saturday, Dugan submitted her resignation letter to Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers. In it, she attempted to play both the martyr card and the social-justice hero as she decried the “unprecedented” charges against her. The Milwaukee County judge is appealing her conviction. She awaits a sentencing date, although it is unlikely Dugan will see much, if any, time behind bars for her first offense. 

“I am the subject of unprecedented federal legal proceedings, which are far from concluded but which present immense and complex challenges that threaten the independence of our judiciary,” Dugan asserts in the resignation letter. As The Federalist has reported, a Massachusetts judge faced criminal proceedings in 2019 following a nearly identical incident. 

“I am pursuing this fight for myself and for our independent judiciary,” the felon judge bloviated. “However, the Wisconsin citizens that I cherish deserve to start the year with a judge on the bench in Milwaukee County Branch 31 rather than have the fate of that Court rest in a partisan fight in the state legislature.”

As a felon, Dugan really has no other choice but to resign. The Wisconsin constitution makes clear that those convicted of a felony are barred from holding “any office of trust, profit or honor in this state” — unless they have been pardoned. 

Republicans threatened to impeach Dugan if she did not resign. 

“Wisconsinites deserve to know their judiciary is impartial and that justice is blind. Judge Hannah Dugan is neither, and her privilege of serving the people of Wisconsin has come to an end,” wrote Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Assembly Majority Leader Tyler August in a joint statement. 

‘An Earned Benefit’

The liberal-led Wisconsin Supreme Court suspended Dugan last spring after she was charged in federal court. Court records and trial testimony show Dugan was “visibly angry” when ICE agents arrived outside her courtroom with an administrative warrant for Flores-Ruiz’s arrest. She demanded the federal law enforcement officers speak to the chief judge. While they were distracted, Dugan directed the illegal immigrant to the exit, which was not accessible to the general public. Flores-Ruiz, who was in court that day on misdemeanor battery charges, was arrested on the street a short time later. 

“I directed him [the ICE agent] down the hall to the administrative offices. What happened after that is their business,” Dugan told police officers three days before her arrest, according to video footage obtained by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “I did not hide this migrant in the jury room or in my chambers. I had him leave out the back door, which I do when the circumstances warrant it. And these are the circumstances that warrant it: I had a room of 30 people, and I just sent him out the door.”

Despite her felony conviction, the 66-year-old judge will still collect her state pension. A spokesman for the Wisconsin Department of Employee Trust Funds, which administers state pensions, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Monday that a guilty verdict doesn’t typically lead to the loss of retirement benefits. 

“With a limited exception, Wisconsin state law does not require an individual to forfeit their WRS [Wisconsin Retirement System] pension because of being terminated or criminal charges,” the agency’s Mark Lamkins wrote in an email to the newspaper. “A WRS pension is an earned benefit of employment based on an individual’s contributions and eligibility and cannot be taken away.”

The “limited exception” is related to a state law that allows retirement funds to be withheld in a restitution order, the publication noted. Such orders only apply to cases involving “felony theft and misconduct in public office, the crime resulted in a loss to the defendant’s employer, and the defendant’s employer participates in the WRS.” 

Apparently Dugan’s conviction does not fit the exception. 

State employee pension information is confidential, so it’s not known just how much Dugan will rake in from her guaranteed retirement benefit. But the judge drew an annual salary of $174,512, or $6,712 every two weeks, according to the Wisconsin Court System. She continued to collect her wages following her suspension, as The Federalist reported in August. 

Evers, Wisconsin’s far-left governor who last year announced he will not seek a third term, will select a judge to fill Dugan’s vacant seat. If the Democrat’s past appointments are any indication, the governor will select the kind of liberal judicial activist that has occupied the circuit court seat for the past 10 years. 

Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.