Prosecution Rests Case in Dugan Trial

Judge Hannah Dugan’s courtroom on the sixth floor of the Milwaukee County Courthouse. Photo taken by Graham Kilmer.

Federal prosecutors wrapped up their case against Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan Wednesday afternoon.

Prosecutors are trying to prove Dugan knowingly obstructed an ICE arrest and concealed a defendant appearing in her courtroom from arrest on April 18. The defendant, Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, was appearing on misdemeanor criminal charges in Dugan’s courtroom. Federal agents planned to arrest him and stationed themselves outside of Dugan’s courtroom.

Over three days of witness testimony, federal prosecutors have walked the jury through their case, their version of what happened that day in April. Testimony was provided by the federal agents who arrested Flores-Ruiz, the FBI agent who investigated Dugan, circuit court judges and, finally, a handful of witnesses who were inside Dugan’s courtroom that day.

The prosecution is led by Deputy U.S. Attorney Richard Frohling and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kelly Brown Watzka and Keith Alexander. Dugan is represented by Attorneys Steven Biskupic, Jason Luczak and Nicole M. Masnica.

Federal agents never entered Dugan’s courtroom. Instead, evidence from inside the courtroom comes from an audio recording of court proceedings that day and testimony from court staff and attorneys present. The government wrapped up its case against Dugan Wednesday by questioning witnesses about what happened in the courtroom.

First up was court clerk Alan Freed, who said state public defender Maura Gingerich alerted him to the presence of ICE. Freed then went into the courtroom and told Dugan ICE was in the hallway. He told prosecutors he was “upset and a little bit outraged” to learn ICE was there. Freed testified that he called an agent “fascist” while walking past him in the hallway.

It has already been established that when Dugan learned ICE was outside, she went to Judge Kristela Cervera‘s courtroom and told her to leave her judicial robes on and accompany her to check if ICE agents had a judicial warrant. They confronted the ICE agents in the hallway and, upon learning they had only an administrative warrant, Dugan directed them to Chief Judge Carl Ashley‘s office.

At that point, Dugan returned to her courtroom, walking through the public doors in her judicial robes and taking up the morning’s calendar.

Back inside, Dugan called attorney Mercedes de la Rosa up. As testimony and audio played in the courtroom showed, Dugan asked what de la Rosa wanted. The attorney, a state public defender assigned to defend Flores-Ruiz, responded that she wanted a new date. Dugan asked if she wanted to deal off the record.

Milwaukee Assistant County District Attorney Melissa Buss testified Wednesday that she saw Dugan motion de la Rosa and Flores-Ruiz to the jury door, which leads to a non-public hallway. De la Rosa and Flores-Ruiz took this route back out to the public hallway instead of the public doors through which they entered the courtroom. When they exited into the hallway, they walked past federal agents and were followed all the way out of the courthouse.

Buss told prosecutors she was not consulted about rescheduling Flores-Ruiz’s case that morning, nor did she hear it called. During cross-examination by Luczak, Buss agreed that she had been having a “tough week” and did not remember hearing the case called. She also testified that she had offered a deferred prosecution agreement in the Flores-Ruiz case the day before. He was initially arrested on charges of strangulation and suffocation, then charged with misdemeanor battery and domestic abuse. Under a deferred prosecution agreement, the case could be dropped or charges reduced further, provided he meets certain requirements and the victims agree.

The victims were in court that day, too. The prosecution called the victim-witness advocate Brittney Ewing, who testified that she was in court that day with three victims. Only one understood English well enough to communicate with Ewing.

When de la Rosa arrived in court that day, one of her colleagues in the state public defender’s office told her ICE was on the sixth floor of the courthouse. She testified that she does not ask her clients their immigration status, but she knew her client that day did not speak English and that she understands that it’s common for people to be afraid of ICE, even U.S. citizens.

She testified that when Dugan returned to the courtroom she was “obnoxious” and “bouncing” on her feet to get the judge’s attention and have her case called.

During de la Rosa’s testimony, prosecutors played an audio clip taken in the courtroom that day. It’s after Dugan has called the case and she and de la Rosa are agreeing to reschedule the hearing off the record. Dugan tells de la Rosa, “Get your client out and come back and get a date.”

Before Flores-Ruiz’s case was called, Dugan told private defense attorney Walter Piel to step away from the counsel table. Piel testified Wednesday that he was expecting his case to be called first. He had a sentencing hearing in Dane County at 10 a.m. that he had to get to after appearing in court in Milwaukee that morning. Like others, Piel said he doesn’t normally see judges entering their courtroom through the public door wearing their judicial robes.

After Dugan and de la Rosa dispensed with the hearing for Flores-Ruiz, Dugan told the attorney to take her client out of the courtroom using the jury door. De la Rosa testified that Dugan did not tell them to use the stairway at the end of the hall, which would have led her and her client away from the ICE agents on the sixth floor. Instead, they walked out of the door at the end of the non-public hallway into the public hallway. She testified that she was “freaked out” and that she “didn’t know what was gonna be on the other side of the door.”

De la Rosa testified that a judge in Racine County once directed her to exit a courtroom with her client through a jury door in order to avoid a “very emotional alleged victim” who needed to make a statement.

The prosecution hit on the stairway in the private hallway again when questioning Joan Butz, the court reporter in Dugan’s courtroom. The prosecution played audio that captured a conversation between Dugan and Butz where they discussed where to send de la Rosa and Flores-Ruiz; the stairway was mentioned. Butz said she would tell them, and Dugan told her no and that she would take the “heat.”

Like court clerk Freed, Butz was not happy to learn ICE was in the county courthouse. “I said that pisses me off,” she said during questioning by U.S. Attorney Watkza. 

Watzka questioned Butz about her conversation with Dugan and why she was concerned which door they would use to leave. Butz said she was trying to be helpful and didn’t want them to go out the wrong door. Watzka questioned her on what she meant by right or wrong door; she asked if the wrong door meant the one that would lead to ICE. Butz said, “Yes.”

After questioning Butz, federal prosecutors rested their case against Dugan. The defense will begin calling witnesses Thursday morning. Judge Lynn Adelman sent the jury home for the day and said the case could be in jurors’ hands at some point Thursday.