Dugan Acquittal Motion Gets Hearing

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

Former Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan will have another opportunity to argue her innocence next week after being convicted of one count of federal misdemeanor obstruction in December.

U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman has scheduled a hearing to consider Dugan’s latest motion, which argues the case law at the heart of her case has fundamentally changed and asks Adelman to reconsider acquittal. Her attorneys will make the case Wednesday, June 3 in federal court.

So too will the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which is arguing that the case law and legal interpretations under which Dugan was convicted still stand.

Dugan was charged in 2025 with one count of obstructing a federal immigration proceeding and one count of concealing an individual from arrest. The charges stemmed from an incident at the Milwaukee County Courthouse in April last year. Agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal law enforcement agencies went to the courthouse to arrest an undocumented immigrant appearing in Dugan’s courtroom. Dugan spoke to the agents and later let the immigrant exit her courtroom through a side door.

Dugan was convicted of the obstruction charge, but not of concealing an individual from arrest. Her attorneys pointed to this inconsistency when asking Adelman to overturn her conviction in February.

In April this year, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court’s ruling in a different case dealing with the question of what exactly is a “pending proceeding” in immigration court. The court ruled that an enforcement proceeding, like an ICE arrest operation, is not the same thing as a “pending proceeding” under the statute. Dugan’s attorneys subsequently argued she could not be found guilty of obstruction under the law used to convict her because, according to the 4th Circuit, a “pending proceeding” was not taking place.

Federal prosecutors responded, saying the recent decision “is neither binding nor persuasive, and it does nothing to call into question this Court’s reasoning.” The decision is an outlier in a body of case law that supports Dugan’s conviction, they argued.

Dugan was initially scheduled to receive her sentence on June 3, but the hearing has been adjourned in lieu of a hearing on the new motion. Under federal law, Dugan could face a potential fine or imprisonment for up to five years, or both.