Video exhibits Milwaukee choose’s interplay with ICE brokers previous to her arrest for alleged try to assist undocumented man

Choose Hannah Dugan had simply arrived for work at Milwaukee County Circuit Court docket on April 18, when she was knowledgeable that federal brokers had been ready exterior her courtroom. They had been there to arrest an undocumented man, Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, who was scheduled to seem earlier than Dugan on a battery cost.

Based on federal prosecutors, Dugan stepped out into the corridor to query the brokers earlier than directing them to the workplace of the county’s chief choose down the corridor. Dugan then allegedly despatched Flores-Ruiz out a private door in an alleged try, authorities declare, to assist him evade arrest on immigration violations. One officer who had returned to the hallway — and one other who had by no means left — stated within the legal grievance they noticed the person leaving. Flores-Ruiz was captured exterior the court docket constructing after a short foot chase.

Dugan, 65, was arrested by the FBI every week later. She is charged in a two-count indictment with obstruction and concealing a person to stop the invention and arrest of Flores-Ruiz. She has pleaded not responsible, and her legal professionals contend she is immune from prosecution for official judicial acts.

Her attorneys have known as her arrest “nearly unprecedented and “fully unconstitutional,” in response to court docket filings.

ABC Information has obtained, by way of a public information request, video from greater than two dozen surveillance cameras on the courthouse, capturing the actions of the choose, the plain-clothed brokers and the person focused for arrest. There isn’t a audio on the surveillance footage.

The video is probably going for use by each prosecutors and protection attorneys as proof in Dugan’s legal case.

“The video will not be conclusive, and I do suppose it tends to help no matter preconceptions folks may need concerning the case,” stated Dean Strang, an lawyer for Dugan.

At the least seven cameras on the sixth ground — the place Dugan’s courtroom is positioned — captured parts of the related occasions.

Six federal brokers, in plainclothes, are seen arriving in staggered pairs shortly after 8 a.m. and staking out positions all through the hallway. One agent sat straight throughout from Dugan’s courtroom.

Dugan arrived by way of a personal entrance to her courtroom at 08:40 a.m., the movies present. Two minutes later, the brokers noticed Flores-Ruiz coming into Dugan’s courtroom by way of the primary entrance.

The choose is then seen a minute later re-entering the hallway in her judicial gown, chatting with a pair of brokers after which directing them and three others down the corridor. Based on the legal grievance, the brokers informed Dugan they’d an administrative warrant, usually issued by immigration authorities with out sign-off by a court docket.

Authorities say Dugan allegedly insisted the brokers wanted a judicial warrant and informed them to go see the chief choose about their deliberate operation. Federal authorities allege that witnesses described Dugan as having “confrontational, indignant demeanor” when she approached the federal brokers, in response to a legal grievance.

Not one of the movies launched to ABC Information exhibits the within of Dugan’s courtroom throughout the couple of minutes that Flores-Ruiz was there. Prosecutors allege Dugan by no means known as Flores-Ruiz’s case and directed him and his lawyer out by way of a private door.

That door, because the movies present, was only a few ft from the primary entrance to the choose’s courtroom and led to the identical public hallway. One of many brokers had by no means left the spot throughout from the courtroom. One other had returned from the chief choose’s workplace previous to Flores-Ruiz’s exit and adopted him.

“If you happen to’re predisposed to suppose that Choose Dugan did one thing legal or wrongfully impeded ICE, you will discover help for that preconception within the video. It is not conclusive, however you will really feel ratified,” Strang stated. “If you happen to begin from pondering she did not do something legal, did not do something improper, you will discover help for that within the video. For instance, she doesn’t look like indignant. They do not present her a warrant. The person comes out inside a couple of minutes, ten or 15 ft from the place the brokers anticipated him, and two of them see him coming within the hallway.”

Dugan has assembled a high-powered protection workforce, which incorporates former United States Solicitor Basic Paul Clement, and Strang, who got here to nationwide prominence as one of many protection attorneys featured within the Netflix docu-series, “Making a Assassin.”

“Even when (opposite to what the trial proof would present) Choose Dugan took the actions the grievance alleges, these plainly had been judicial acts for which she has absolute immunity from legal prosecution. Judges are empowered to keep up management over their courtrooms particularly and the courthouse usually,” her legal professionals wrote earlier this month in a movement to dismiss the indictment.

Dugan entered a not responsible plea at a short court docket look on Might 15. She has remained free on her personal recognizance and her trial is about for July.