A judge in the United States has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of concealing a person from arrest and obstruction of proceedings after she was accused of helping an undocumented migrant evade authorities.
Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan, 66, was arrested last month after prosecutors said she hindered the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents who showed up to arrest the man without a judicial warrant outside her courtroom.
Prosecutors alleged she tried to help Eduardo Flores-Ruiz and his lawyer leave the courtroom from the back jury door before his arrest outside the building.
Dugan faces up to six years in prison if she’s convicted on both counts. Craig Mastantuono, one of Dugan’s lawyers, said in a statement that Dugan “asserts her innocence and looks forward to being vindicated in court”.
Dugan, who was elected in 2016, is expected to plead not guilty at the next hearing scheduled for Thursday.
According to court documents, Flores-Ruiz had illegally re-entered the US after being deported in 2013.
According to online state court records, he was charged with three counts of misdemeanour domestic abuse in Milwaukee County in March, to which he was in court in April for a hearing.
Court documents suggest Dugan was alerted that the immigration agents appeared in the court’s hallway by her clerk.
In an affidavit, Dugan was described as visibly angry over their arrival and called the situation “absurd” before leaving the bench and returning to her chambers.
She and another judge later approached the ICE agents in the court with what witnesses described as a “confrontational, angry demeanour”.
After a back-and-forth over the warrant for Flores-Ruiz, Dugan demanded they speak with the chief judge and led them away from the courtroom, according to the affidavit.
When she returned to the courtroom, she was heard telling Flores-Ruiz and his lawyer to come with her, and they were ushered out through a back jury door.
Flores-Ruiz was later captured by federal agents outside the court after a foot chase.
The indictment is the latest incident in President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration and local authorities.
Source: Aljazeera
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