Evers Shifts Judicial Appointee to Fill Dugan’s Seat

Owen Piotrowski. Photo courtesy of the Office of the Governor.

Gov. Tony Evers is shifting a recent judicial appointee to fill the seat left by Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan‘s resignation.

Dugan resigned Jan. 3 after being convicted in December on one felony count of impeding and obstructing a federal immigration operation. Dugan is appealing the conviction but told Evers in her resignation letter that the citizens of Milwaukee County “deserve to start the year with a judge on the bench in Milwaukee County Branch 31.”

In December, Evers appointed Owen Piotrowski to replace Judge Jeffrey Wagner, who is retiring in March. After Dugan’s resignation, which she requested to take effect immediately, Piotrowski has agreed to fill Dugan’s seat on the bench, according to a statement from Evers’ office Wednesday. Piotrowski will assume the office on Feb. 1.

“Piotrowski’s appointment to begin in Branch 31 earlier will ensure normal court processes may resume sooner and help ensure disruptions during this period will be minimized,” according to Evers’ office.

Piotrowski is currently an assistant district attorney in the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office, where he has worked since 2014. He has experience prosecuting sensitive and violent crimes, and since 2022 he has served as the team captain for the office’s firearms unit, overseeing attorneys prosecuting nonfatal shooting cases.

Hannah Dugan has not served on the bench since April of last year, after she was arrested by the FBI for allegedly concealing an immigrant from arrest and obstructing federal agents involved in an immigration enforcement operation. Afterward, the Wisconsin Supreme Court suspended her from judicial duties, which have been covered by reserve judges.

At the end of a four-day trial in December, Dugan was found guilty on the charge of obstruction, but not of concealing an individual from arrest.

The charges stemmed from from an incident at the Milwaukee County Courthouse on April 18. Federal agents went to the courthouse that day to arrest Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, an undocumented immigrant who was appearing before Dugan on charges of misdemeanor battery and domestic violence. When Dugan learned Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were in the hall outside her courtroom, she confronted them and asked if they had a judicial warrant. When informed they had an administrative warrant, Dugan sent the agents to the chief judge’s office. Back in her courtroom she rescheduled Flores-Ruiz’s case and sent him and his attorney out of a side door, rather than the main door, to the public hallway.

Her defense has cast the split decision as unusual, and Dugan is appealing the conviction.

“As you know, I am the subject of unprecedented federal legal proceedings, which are far from concluded but which present immense and complex challenges that threaten the independence of our judiciary,” Dugan said in her letter to Evers. “I am pursuing this fight for myself and for our independent judiciary.”