A federal judge upheld former Wisconsin judge Hannah Dugan’s conviction of obstruction of justice for helping an illegal alien evade ICE.
Dugan resigned in January after she was convicted.
In April, federal court judge Lynn Adelman denied motions filed by Dugan, including a judgment of acquittal or a new trial.
Dugan’s attorneys asked Adelman to reconsider, citing a case out of Virginia.
The team claimed that ICE agents attempting “to serve a warrant at the Milwaukee County Courthouse for Flores-Ruiz’s arrest did not meet the legal definition of ‘pending proceeding.'”
Adelman once again upheld the conviction:
The problem for the defense is that this case did not involve some random encounter on the street. It was a targeted operation, conducted pursuant to agency procedures, including the issuance of an arrest warrant for a specific person, Eduardo Flores-Ruiz. After the arrest of Flores-Ruiz, ICE followed its procedures for reinstatement of the previous order of removal, determining that he should be removed from the country. While this did not involve a contested hearing in front of an immigration judge or other authority, that is because Flores-Ruiz declined to challenge the previous order or make a claim for asylum.Defendant also compares what happened in this case to mere police activity, similar to what law enforcement does every day, e.g, obtaining warrants and then arresting suspects. (Oral Arg. Tr. at 7, 26, 29.) Defendant argues that ICE was acting as a law enforcement agency here. But this ignores the fact that, unlike, say, the FBI, ICE can issue its own warrants and adjudicate and effectuate a removal, as it did with Flores-Ruiz, without the involvement of a court. This makes a difference under § 1505. See Kelley, 36 F.3d at 1127.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY