Milwaukee (AP) – A Wisconsin judge pleaded not guilty Thursday to the accusations of having accused him of helping a man who is illegally in the country Escape the American immigration authorities Seeking to arrest him in his courthouse.
Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan pleaded during a brief indictment before the Federal Court. Judge Magistrate Stephen Dries provided a trial to start on July 21. Dugan’s principal lawyer Steven Biskupic, told the judge that he expects the trial to last a week.
Dugan, his lawyers and prosecutors left the hearing without speaking to journalists.
The accusations against Dugan
She is responsible for hiding an individual to prevent arrest and obstruction. Prosecutors say that she escorted Eduardo Flores-Ruiz and her lawyer out of her courtroom by a rear door on April 18 after learning that American immigration and customs agents were at the courthouse seeking to arrest him to be illegally in the country. She could incur up to six years in prison if she is found guilty of the two counts.
Her lawyers say she is innocent. They filed a request Wednesday to reject the case, saying that it was acting in its official capacity as a judge and that it is therefore safe from prosecution. They also argue that the federal government has violated the sovereignty of Wisconsin by disturbing a state courtroom and pursuing a state judge.
A public reaction
Dugan’s arrest ignited the tensions between the Trump administration and the Democrats for the president’s repression of the president.
Dozens of demonstrators gathered outside the courthouse before the hearing on Thursday, with certain signs that read, “only the fascists stop judges – abandon the accusations”, “Department of Justice” and “Keep your hands from our judges !!” The crowd chanted the “rights of the regular procedure”, “maintains our freedom” and “so stubborn” – the Spaniard for “yes, we can” – which is a rallying cry for defenders of the rights of immigrants.
A man stood alone on the other side of the street holding a Trump flag.
Nancy Camden, from the suburbs of Mequon north of Milwaukee, was one of the demonstrators calling for the rejection of the case. She said that she thought that the ice should not have tried to stop Flores-Ruiz inside the courthouse and that the Ministry of Justice “exceeded” Dugan.
“How they managed this and made a great demonstration of the arrest and put it handcuffed, all of this was intimidation,” said Camden. “And I’m not going to be intimidated. I rinse myself.”
Esther Cabrera, an organizer of the Milwaukee Alliance against racist and political repression, said that the accusations against Dugan represented a “repression funded by the State”.
“If we will continue the judges, if we are going Go after the mayors, We must understand that they can come after anyone, “she said.” And it is in a way why we wanted to make a presence here today, that is to say that you cannot come after everyone and that it stops here. “”
The bottom of the case
According to court documents, Flores-Ruiz returned to the United States illegally after being expelled in 2013. Online legal files show that he was accused of three domestic leaders in Milwaukee County in March, and he was in Dugan’s courtroom on April 18 for an audience in this case.
According to an Affidavit of the FBI, Dugan was alerted to the presence of agents by his clerk, who was informed by a lawyer that the agents seemed to be in the corridor. Dugan was visibly angry and called the “absurd” situation before leaving the bench and retiring in his rooms, affirms the Affidavit. She and another judge later approached members of the arrest team at the courthouse with what witnesses described as a “conflictual and angry behavior”.
After a back and forth with the agents on the mandate of Flores-Ruiz, Dugan demanded that they speak with the chief judge and led them from the courtroom, according to the Affidavit.
After his return to the courtroom, witnesses heard her say something to “wait, come with me” before satisfying Flores-Ruiz and his lawyer by a door generally used only by deputies, jurors, judicial staff and derivative defendants, the Affidavit claims. Flores-Ruiz was free on a signing deposit in the abuse case, according to online state judicial files. The federal agents finally owned him outside the courthouse after a prosecution on foot.
The Supreme Court of the State Suspended Dugan Last week, claiming that this decision was necessary to preserve the public’s confidence in the judiciary. She was released after her arrest.
How the case could take place
John Vaudreuil, a former Wisconsin federal prosecutor who is not involved in the cases of Dugan or Flores-Ruiz, said that the Trump administration seems to want to make an example of Dugan. US prosecutor General Pam Bondi or Deputy Prosecutor General Todd Blanche, rather than the American prosecutor of Milwaukee, probably makes decisions about how to proceed, making prosecutors less likely to reduce the charges against Dugan in an agreement, he said.
His lawyers will probably try to put pressure for a trial with jury, predicted Vaudreuil, because they know that “people feel very strongly on how the president and the administration carry out an immigration policy”.
Dugan is represented by some of the most accomplished lawyers in Wisconsin. Biskupic was federal prosecutor for 20 years and served seven years as an American lawyer in Milwaukee. Paul Clement, on the other hand, is a former American lawyer who pleaded more than 100 cases before the United States Supreme Court. Both were appointed employment by former republican president George W. Bush.
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The journalists of the Associated Press Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin and Laura Bargfeld contributed to this report.
