(The Center Square) – Immigrations and Customs Enforcement has the right to arrest individuals in the halls of the Milwaukee County Courthouse on an administrative warrant, as agents were attempting to do when judge Hannah Dugan is accused of interfering.
Milwaukee County Chief Judge Carl Ashley confirmed to a group of reporters that judges have “limitations on what we can do.”
“We don’t have control in the public hallways,” Ashley said. “A administrative warrant is a warrant that can be effectuated in the public hallway. A judicial warrant has more authority, you can go into private areas. But what we’re trying to work out is a process where there can be respect for the courtroom and what we’re doing but allow the Immigration and Customs Enforcement to do what they need to do as well.”
Ashley said that he cannot comment specifically on what occurred in Dugan’s case.
Dugan is charged with obstruction and concealing an individual to prevent his discovery or arrest, charges that could lead to up to five years in prison, according to a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Wisconsin.
Dugan allegedly aided defendant Eduardo Flores Ruiz, who was previously deported and came back to the U.S., where he was facing charges in Milwaukee of domestic battery and abuse.
FBI Special Agent Lindsay Schloemer wrote in the complaint against Dugan that law enforcement often makes arrests at the courthouse because “not only the fact that law enforcement knows the location at which the wanted individual should be located but also the fact that the wanted individual would have entered through a security checkpoint and thus unarmed, minimizing the risk of injury to law enforcement, the public, and the wanted individual.”
Ashley said that the court would like to support the community but also do what is appropriate at the courthouse.
“We just want to stay in our lane and be transparent with the community on what we can do and what we can’t,” Ashley told reporters, referencing a draft policy on how judges should handle those situations at the courthouse.
After Dugan learned that ICE was prepared to arrest Flores-Ruiz after an April 18 pretrial hearing, she was described in the complaint as “visibly angry, commented that the situation was ‘absurd,’ left the bench, and entered chambers.”
Dugan is then accused of postponing the hearing, even though victims in the case were present, because of the planned ICE arrest. Dugan is then accused of escorting Flores Ruiz through a jury door to avoid his arrest.
Flores-Ruiz was able to exit the courthouse but was then arrested after a chase on foot outside of the courthouse.
Dugan was then arrested on Friday morning in Milwaukee after charged before being released. She was suspended on Monday by the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
“We are all concerned about how it all transpired,” Ashley told reporters. “That’s not a comfortable situation for any person to have an experience like that and whether that process was necessary or not.”
