America's Talking - State Supreme Court Suspends Milwaukee Judge Charged With Helping Man Evade ICE

Episode Date: May 3, 2025

(The Center Square) – The Wisconsin Supreme Court suspended a Milwaukee judge facing two federal charges for allegedly trying to help a man illegally in the country escape from immigration officials. The order, released late Tuesday, said Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan faces two federal charges – one a felony and one a misdemeanor – and it is in the public interest to relieve her of her duties temporarily. “The court is charged in the Wisconsin Constitution with exercising superintending and administrative authority of the courts of this state. In the exercise of that constitutional authority and in order to uphold the public’s confidence in the courts of this state during the pendency of the criminal proceeding against Judge Dugan, we conclude, on our own motion, that it is in the public interest that she be temporarily relieved of her official duties,” the order reads. Support this podcast: https://secure.anedot.com/franklin-news-foundation/ce052532-b1e4-41c4-945c-d7ce2f52c38a?source_code=xxxxxxFull story: https://www.thecentersquare.com/wisconsin/article_79fa734e-dc49-48b4-94e0-acebe1b68a6f.html Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Last week, when Milwaukee County judge was arrested on federal charges for allegedly helping an illegal immigrant escape federal authorities. That's led to widespread conversation, uproar throughout Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and the country. Joining me today is John Stife, the Center Square Wisconsin reporter. And John, tell me the latest on this issue. Well, she's been suspended. She's getting paid. That's kind of a question that people have is why she's getting paid. She was suspended by the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and she has a court date coming up in early May,

which probably not anything will happen at that court date, but that's the initial court date for the pretrial. So initially, when before her arrest, I guess news started to flow Friday morning, and the FBI director actually sent a tweet and deleted the tweet. Is that right? Yes. He sent something out before she was even formally charged. And then at about 10, 20 a.m., she was charged in court. She was in court for about five minutes, and then she was released. So what, I guess throughout this week, what has, can you give me a sense of what the feel has been, I guess, supporters of the federal action or the federal immigration policy and detractors? So there was a protest over the weekend, and on Friday there were a lot of statements that came out from Democratic lawmakers that said,

hey, this was an inappropriate arrest. It could have been handled a different way. This week, the Assembly Republicans came out and said, hey, the governor has, issued a statement to state employees through the Department of Administration that said, you know, don't talk to anyone who comes in from ICE into your work and instead consult a lawyer and talk to our general counsel. Don't help them at all. The Assembly Republicans are like, well, you should definitely help them and they're there for law enforcement reasons. And I think that applies a little bit to this because this occurred in the ice was trying to make the arrest in the lobby of the courthouse and and as the chief judge has said about that space that's a public

space it's not like they were doing it in the courtroom they weren't trying to do it in private in the in the back channels of the courthouse they were trying to do it in the lobby outside of it they were asked to wait to make the arrest until after the pretrial hearing and then the judge didn't do the pretrial hearing and tried to help escort the defendant in that case out of the area with the lobby outside of the courtroom and down an elevator. You know, I think there are two, maybe three key issues that have gone on this week that are kind of getting overlooked, but thankfully, you've written on, you've written on them. One is this sense that the chief judge said, listen, these are public spaces.

This is allowable in a public space. The other issue that ties into that is allegedly she had asked them to wait and make it after the hearing and then didn't do the hearing. I think by any stretch that's a concern. The other thing that I think is that is critically important in this that has been very much overlooked, except for the story that published on the Center Square yesterday by you, is this letter from the governor that told taxpayer-funded employees not to cooperate with the federal government. I have a hard time getting around that, whether you like a policy or not like a policy, rules are rules, laws of law. I feel like that's, and John, you can help me out on that, but I feel like that's kind of what Assembly Republicans are getting at with this letter.

Right. And they went a little further than that in the press conference they had early in the week, but the letter essentially says, hey, the law enforcement is here to enforce immigration. law and this was someone who was previously deported and then was is being charged with violence against two people in his home after coming back to the U.S. after previously being deported. And they're kind of pointing to that and saying, this isn't a case where this person even gets a hearing. They're just deported again because of the circumstances of the case. And this judge either didn't know that or didn't know that and still tried to assist the person in leaving the courthouse.

And to be clear, he was arrested out on the street in front of the courthouse. They chased him down and they arrested him. That nothing ended up happening because of this. But she tried to, and she was visibly upset, as it said in the complaint that they were waiting outside the courthouse for him or outside. of the courtroom. You know, it brings, it's a small example of this kind of overall issue that's been, I guess, surrounding the country for several years now. A law is a law.

Rules are rules. You're, you can not like some of them and you can love some of them, but the rule of law is the rule of law. And it's critical to follow that. We don't get to pick and choose what we want to do. Part of the issue with the Milwaukee courthouse is that a couple times previously, these arrests have occurred there, and there's been kind of an uproar about it, and there have been statements made about, okay, what's the policy here?

And should people be concerned if they're going in as a witness, if they're going into the courthouse for a pre-child hearing, all these different things? But what was made clear in the complaint here is they're not going after witnesses. They're not going after anyone else. They're prioritizing people who are accused of violent crimes who are on their list, who have been previously deported, who are a higher level of offense. And they're saying that the concern about people randomly going to the courthouse and the federal government going after all sorts of random people at that courthouse or witnesses

or people that aren't there in front of the court based on an offense that they are accused of, those people are not subject to this, and they shouldn't be concerned about going into that courthouse. Well, John, I appreciate you joining us today. This is certainly something that will not go away soon in Wisconsin. and likely across the country. Thanks so much.