Sentencing Date Set in Dugan Case

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

A sentencing hearing has been set in the federal criminal case against former Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan.

In December, Dugan was convicted of one felony count of concealing an individual from arrest. U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman has scheduled sentencing for Wednesday June 3. Dugan faces a potential  fine and or imprisonment for up to five years.

The sentencing date comes days after Adelman denied Dugan’s motion to vacate the guilty conviction against her on one count of obstruction of a federal deportation proceeding.

Dugan was charged with two federal crimes in 2025 in the wake of an incident involving a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation at the Milwaukee County Courthouse. Dugan sent an immigrant appearing in her courtroom out a side door after after learning federal immigration agents were in the hallway that day. The man, Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, was the target of an immigration enforcement operation. He was later arrested outside the courthouse.

Dugan was charged with obstruction and one count of concealing an individual from arrest. After a four-day day trial in December, Dugan was found guilty of the latter, but not the former charge. Her legal team has questioned how Dugan could be found guilty on one charge and not the other, saying the same elements were required for both.

In subsequent legal filings moving to vacate the conviction against her, Dugan argued ICE had no legal authority to be in the courthouse that day and that the jury received improper instruction on the count she was convicted of. Adelman disagreed and sustained the conviction.

Dugan’s legal team has indicated they are planning to appeal the case to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals and released a statement maintaining Dugan’s innocence after Adelman’s decision against vacating the conviction.