A federal judge in Milwaukee fined former judge Hannah Dugan $5,000 on Wednesday. Dugan will not go to prison. She had helped a man slip away from ICE agents inside her own courthouse.

A jury found Dugan guilty of felony obstruction in December. She led a Mexican man out a private door to help him dodge arrest. ICE agents caught him anyway, just minutes later, outside the building.

This case is not only about one judge in Wisconsin. It is about how far a court can go to shield someone from ICE. Families across South Texas watch cases like this closely. ICE agents show up at courthouses here too, waiting for people who come in for regular hearings. What Dugan did, and how the court punished her, could shape how other judges act the next time ICE walks in.

The case started on April 18, 2025. ICE officers went to the Milwaukee County courthouse looking for Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, 31. Flores-Ruiz had come back into the country after being sent home once before. He had a hearing that day in front of Dugan on a state battery case.

Dugan met the agents outside her courtroom. She told them their warrant was not enough to make an arrest. She sent them down the hall to the chief judge's office. Her lawyers said at trial that she was following court rules. Those rules tell court workers to report any ICE agents to a supervisor first.

After the agents left, Dugan walked Flores-Ruiz and his lawyer out a private door used only by the jury. ICE agents spotted him in the hallway outside. They chased him on foot and arrested him a short time later. A week after that, FBI agents arrested Dugan inside the same courthouse. They walked her outside in handcuffs. Flores-Ruiz was deported in November.

U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman handed down the fine on Wednesday. He said Dugan is an otherwise good person who got upset about immigration rules and made a bad call in the moment. That is why he chose not to send her to prison. He also said, "This conviction affirms that no one is above the law."

Dugan spoke in court before her sentence. "I have been cast as both a scofflaw and a hero. I am neither," she said. She said she was only trying to keep her courtroom safe and orderly, not to break the law.

Prosecutors pushed back hard. Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Frohling wrote in a court filing that Dugan crossed a clear line. "Judges are entrusted with tremendous discretion, but there is a line they cannot cross," he wrote. "The defendant crossed that line." First Assistant U.S. Attorney Brad Schimel said, "Law enforcement officers need to be able to carry out their lawful responsibilities in the manner that is safest for them, the public and the individual they are attempting to detain."

Dugan quit her judge job in January. She had held the seat for nine years. Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin had already threatened to impeach her, calling her an activist judge. In her resignation letter, she said the case against her put "the independence of our judiciary" at risk. Republican Congressman Tom Tiffany, who is running for Wisconsin governor, had publicly called to "lock her up."

Sentencing rules called for 15 to 21 months behind bars, a term that would have kept her locked up for well over a year. Adelman did not have to follow those rules, and he chose not to send Dugan to prison at all. Prosecutors did not ask for a set number of months, but wrote that the crime was serious and needed a sentence to match.

Dugan's attorney, Jason Luczak, said they will appeal her felony conviction. The jury had already cleared her of a second, lighter charge of hiding someone from arrest. Dugan told the court she has stepped back from public life because of threats made against her and her family since her arrest.