Justice Hannah Dugan was arrested last month after prosecutors said they had helped a man escape federal immigration agents.
In the United States, a judge was charged by a large federal jury to hide a person from arrest and obstructing procedures after being accused of having helped a migrant undocumented to the authorities.
Judge of the County Court of Milwaukee County, Hannah Dugan, 66, was arrested last month after the prosecutors said that she had hampered the immigration and customs’ application (ICE) agents who showed up to arrest the man without a legal mandate outside his hearing room.
The prosecutors allegedly tried to help Eduardo Flores-Ruiz and his lawyer leave the courtroom of the rear jury door before its arrest outside the building.
Dugan risks up to six years in prison if she was sentenced to the two counts. Craig Mastanuono, one of Dugan’s lawyers, said in a statement that Dugan “said his innocence and is eager to be justified in court”.
Dugan, who was elected in 2016, should plead not guilty at the next hearing scheduled for Thursday.
According to court documents, Flores-Ruiz had returned to the United States illegally after being expelled in 2013.
According to the judicial archives of the online state, he was accused of three heads of offense of domestic violence in the county of Milwaukee in March, which he was in April for a hearing.
Documents suggest that Dugan was alerted that immigration agents appeared in the courtyard of the court by his clerk.
In an affidavit, Dugan was described as visibly angry with their arrival and called the “absurd” situation before leaving the bench and returning to its rooms.
She and another judge later approached the ice agents in court with what witnesses described as a “conflicting and angry behavior”.
After a back and forth for Flores-Ruiz’s mandate, Dugan asked the word with the chief judge and removed them from the courtroom, according to the Affidavit.
When she returned to the courtroom, she was heard saying to Flores-Ruiz and her lawyer to come with her, and they were launched by a rear jury door.
Flores-Ruiz was then captured by federal agents outside the court after a prosecution on foot.
The indictment is the last incident of President Donald Trump’s repression against immigration and local authorities.
Democrats accused Trump’s administration of having tried to make an example of Dugan to repress the legal opposition.
