U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman rejected former Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan’s request for a new trial or a judgment of acquittal Monday.
U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman has denied former Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan’s request for a new trial or acquittal following her December 2025 felony conviction for obstructing federal immigration agents.
Dugan, who resigned from the bench earlier this year, was found guilty by a federal jury of one count of obstruction after she allegedly directed a defendant and his attorney out a side jury door in her courtroom on April 18, 2025, as ICE agents waited to arrest him.
The man, Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, faced deportation proceedings and was later apprehended outside the courthouse. Jurors acquitted Dugan on a related misdemeanor charge of concealing an individual to prevent arrest.
In post-trial motions filed in late January 2026, Dugan’s defense team argued that immigration arrests in courthouses are unlawful, renewing claims of judicial immunity and asserting that Adelman provided inconsistent or flawed instructions to jurors during deliberations, contributing to the split verdict. They urged the court to set aside the conviction or grant a new trial.
Federal prosecutors strongly opposed the motion, calling Dugan’s arguments “absurd” and noting that many had been waived or previously rejected by Adelman during pretrial proceedings. In a February response, they maintained that no general judicial immunity shields officials from criminal liability for obstructive conduct and that the trial evidence supported the jury’s finding.
Adelman, who presided over the high-profile case, rejected the defense’s latest challenges, upholding the conviction. The ruling comes after he had earlier denied Dugan’s attempts to dismiss the charges on immunity and separation-of-powers grounds.
Dugan faces up to five years in prison at sentencing, though a date has not been finalized.
