Fellow Wisconsin judge 'shocked' by Hannah Dugan's response to
immigration officers
[December 17, 2025]
By TODD RICHMOND
MILWAUKEE (AP) — A colleague of the Milwaukee judge accused of helping a
Mexican immigrant evade arrest testified Tuesday that she was shocked by
her fellow judge's behavior.
“Judges shouldn’t help defendants evade arrest,” Milwaukee County
Circuit Judge Kristela Cervera testified at Hannah Dugan's trial.
The testimony on the second day of trial came after officers involved in
the arrest told the jury that Dugan's behavior on April 18 made it more
dangerous for them to do their jobs.
Dugan is on trial on charges of obstruction and concealment in
connection with the incident. The maximum sentence for obstruction, the
more serious charge, is five years in prison, though federal judges have
much discretion to go lower.
The highly unusual charges against a sitting judge are an extraordinary
consequence of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. Dugan's
supporters say Trump is looking to make an example of her to blunt
judicial opposition to immigration arrests.
Eduardo Flores-Ruiz was scheduled to appear before Dugan on the morning
of April 18 on state battery charges. Prosecutors allege that after
Dugan learned that federal officers were in the hallway waiting to
arrest him, she cleared a path for him to escape by directing the
officers to the chief judge’s office and then leading Eduardo-Flores out
of her courtroom through a private door.
Cervera testified that she was irritated that Dugan used her as backup
during the incident, making her come out of her courtroom into the
hallway while still wearing her robe.
Dugan proceeded to angrily confront two officers waiting to arrest
Flores-Ruiz, telling them repeatedly that they needed a judicial warrant
before sending them to the chief judge’s chambers, Cervera testified.
She escorted the officers to the chambers while Dugan returned to her
courtroom, she said.
Dugan approached her three days later and said she was “in the doghouse”
with the chief judge, saying something to the effect that the chief was
upset with her because she had “tried to help that guy," Cervera
testified.
When she learned that Dugan had led Flores-Ruiz out the private door, “I
was shocked,” Cervera testified.
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This courtroom sketch depicts Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah
Dugan in court, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025 in Milwaukee, Wis. (Adela
Tesnow via AP)
FBI agent Phillip Jackling testified on Tuesday that he was
concerned that his team was divided when Dugan directed agents to
speak with the chief judge.
Dugan appeared angry when she approached him in the hallway outside
her courtroom, he said. Another member of the arrest team, Customs
and Border Protection Supervisory Officer Joseph Zuraw, said Dugan
jerked her thumb over her shoulder and told him to “get out" before
directing him to the chief judge's chambers.
Four of the arrest team's six members were in the chief judge's
chambers or a hallway leading to the chambers when Flores-Ruiz left
the courtroom, the agents testified. Zuraw said he remembered
thinking: “This is a bad spot we’re in right now. It’s a bad spot
because we don’t’ have a decent number of officers to safely make an
arrest.”
The team followed him outside the courthouse and had to chase him
down through traffic when they could have safely arrested him in the
building, they testified.
Dugan’s defense team has suggested that agents could have arrested
Flores-Ruiz at any point in the hallway and Dugan shouldn't be
blamed for their decision to wait until he was outside.
Defense attorney Steven Biskupic said in opening statements that the
judge had no intention of obstructing agents. He said that Dugan was
just following a draft courthouse policy that called for court
personnel to refer immigration agents looking to make an arrest in
the courthouse to supervisors.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced in November that
Flores-Ruiz had been deported.
___
Associated Press writer Scott Bauer contributed to this report from
Madison, Wisconsin.
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