Wisconsin Judge Facing Federal Charges Rakes In $50K In Pay

Suspended while she faces charges for allegedly helping a violent illegal immigrant elude federal law enforcement officials, Wisconsin Judge Hannah Dugan continues to collect full pay and benefits on the backs of Badger State taxpayers. 

The Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge has raked in $48,997 in pay since the Wisconsin Supreme Court suspended Dugan from the bench in late April, according to information obtained through an open records request by The Federalist. Dugan’s biweekly pay rate is $6,712, with an annual salary of $174,512, according to the Wisconsin Court System. 

Meanwhile, Dugan has established a legal defense fund to pay for a high-powered team of lawyers that includes former Solicitor General Paul Clement and former federal prosecutor Steve Biskupic. In its first three weeks, the fund had raised nearly $140,000, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Dugan doesn’t have to report on who gave what until next year, the news outlet reported. 

“Judge Hannah Dugan deserves a full and aggressive defense,” states the fund website, which bills the federal felony charge against her as “the prosecution of America’s independent judiciary.”

‘Denied’

The judge insists that she is immune from prosecution, that she has the right to do as she pleases in her courtroom — apparently up to breaking the law. She argues that the charges should be dropped. 

U.S. Magistrate Nancy Joseph disagrees. Last month, Joseph found Dugan’s arguments “unconvincing” in recommending Dugan’s motion to dismiss the charges be denied. 

“It is well-established and undisputed that judges have absolute immunity from civil lawsuits for monetary damages when engaging in judicial acts. This, however, is not a civil case,” the magistrate wrote in her thorough, 37-page decision. “Accordingly, I recommend that Dugan’s motion to dismiss the indictment on judicial immunity grounds be denied.”

Dugan has been charged with felony obstruction and misdemeanor concealing an individual to prevent arrest. She is accused of aiding previously deported illegal immigrant Eduardo Flores-Ruiz’s brief escape from federal law enforcement officials in April while he was appearing in front of Dugan on battery charges. Dugan faces up to six years in prison and a $350,000 fine if found guilty. 

As The Federalist has reported, FBI agents arrested Dugan on April 25 at the courthouse, a week after the judge, according to the criminal complaint, misdirected federal agents, delaying them from apprehending Flores-Ruiz. The illegal immigrant was set to appear before Dugan for a pretrial conference on three misdemeanor counts of domestic battery. Flores-Ruiz is expected to be deported again after he serves a federal prison term for violating immigration law, Milwaukee’s ABC affiliate, WISN, reported. 

The criminal complaint states that Dugan was “visibly angry” in confronting Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who appeared with an administrative warrant to take the illegal alien into custody. After sending the law enforcement officials to the chief judge’s office, Dugan escorted Flores-Ruiz and his legal counsel out of the courtroom through the “jury door,” which leads to a non-public area of the courthouse, according to the charges. 

‘Extended Vacation’

The state Supreme Court placed Dugan on administrative leave, stating in an order that doing so was in the “public interest.” But the embattled judge still collects a regular paycheck despite being “prohibited from exercising the powers of a circuit court judge in the state of Wisconsin … until further order” of the court. 

A bill introduced by Republicans in the state legislature would freeze the salaries of suspended judges. The proposal is currently tied up in the Assembly Judiciary Committee. 

State Rep. Shae Sortwell, who introduced the bill, said taxpayers should not have to “fund an extended vacation” for Dugan while paying for reserve judges to fill in for her. He noted that the Wisconsin Supreme Court in May suspended a Dane County Circuit Court judge without pay for judicial misconduct. 

“Judicial suspension policy needs to be proper and consistent to ensure taxpayer dollars are not being wasted,” Sortwell said in a press release. 

Recently released police body cam video shows Dugan telling local police officers in an unrelated incident three days before FBI agents arrested her that media reports asserting she was under investigation were “all lies.” The reports were indeed true. 

“What I’m worried about is just the whackos that will believe this story, which is not true,” Dugan told officers, according to the footage obtained by the Journal Sentinel. “I’m not being investigated by the feds. The FBI was not there, you know. ICE was there. I directed him down the hall to the administrative offices. What happened after that is their business. 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.”

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.