Public defender, chief judge testify in Milwaukee judge's ICE obstruction trial as feds rest case

MILWAUKEE (CN) — Courtroom witnesses shed light onto what happened inside Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan’s courtroom that prompted her arrest and indictment on charges of felony obstruction and misdemeanor.

On Wednesday — the third day of her high-profile Immigration and Customs Enforcement obstruction trial — the federal government wrapped up its case with testimony from witnesses who were inside the courtroom on April 18, when Dugan, 66, purportedly concealed Eduardo Flores-Ruiz from ICE officers in early May.

Testimony from Mercedes De La Rosa — a public defender assigned to Flores-Ruiz’ unrelated criminal case — shed more light on the context of Dugan’s actions that day.

Upon learning that ICE was waiting in the hallway for Flores-Ruiz, Dugan reportedly recruited Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Kristela Cervera — who testified during the second day of trial to feeling abandoned by Dugan — to join her in confronting the six plainclothes ICE officers while wearing their judicial robes.

From there, the government says she returned to her own courtroom to expedite Flores-Ruiz’s scheduling and usher him and his attorney out of the courtroom through a private hallway to evade the officers.

De La Rosa said she was actually the one to request Flores-Ruiz’s case be quickly handled off the record because she was concerned about ICE targeting him for speaking Spanish.

The government, aiming to prove criminal intent beyond a reasonable doubt, claim Dugan had intended to send Flores-Ruiz and De La Rosa down a private staircase leading to the fifth floor in a restricted hallway.

Courtroom audio played in court has Dugan calling Flores-Ruiz’s case — despite earlier testimony from Assistant District Attorney Melissa Buss to the contrary — and encouraging De La Rosa to “take [her] client out” before rescheduling.

In the recording, Dugan quickly recanted her own suggestion that the attorney leave and come back, and scheduled a hearing for May before Dugan escorted them through the jury door. There are no cameras and no audio in the hallway.

De La Rosa said she was certain that no one said anything to her about the private stairs, and that she didn’t even know they were there. She also testified that Dugan also didn’t tell her that ICE was in that hallway, or that they had a warrant for her client.

De La Rosa said she was new to the Milwaukee trial division and had previously been in Dugan’s courtroom just once or twice and remembered being scared and confused in the private hallway.

“My brain was spinning. I had been speaking in two languages, and it was Good Friday, so I hadn’t had any coffee or food that day,” De La Rosa said. “I took it as a mentoring moment … I knew the judge from the Association of Women Lawyers — she had been a mentor there to many young women attorneys.”

According to testimony, the six officers had been dispatched to Milwaukee County Circuit Court Chief Judge Carl Ashley after Dugan and Cervera spoke with them. Ashley testified early in the day that he was not surprised that Dugan had sent the entire arrest team to his office, since his draft policy for what to do if immigration officers showed up was not yet in effect and there was still confusion and fear about how ICE should be handled in the courthouse.

The government also called Dugan’s court reporter, Alan Freed Jr., to testify to the handling of Flores-Ruiz’s case. Freed was terse and precise with his answers, except when he conceded that he called a passing ICE agent a “fascist.”

Freed was the first to notify Dugan of ICE’s operation in the hallway, but said he had little part in what came after that. Court reporter Joan Butz, on the other hand, testified that she wanted to be the one to show De La Rosa and her client down the private stairs to the fifth floor.

Though courtroom audio makes it sound like Dugan agreed with that route, as U.S. Attorney Kelly Brown Watzka asserted, Dugan’s decision not to do so once again muddies the government’s insinuation.

Dugan’s trial began on Monday with witnesses called by the federal government to establish the timeline on April 18 and to lay the foundation of criminal intent. Dugan’s comment about blame was a highlight of the day: “I’ll do it. I’ll take the heat.”

The federal government rested their case far earlier than initially expected. The defense will call four witnesses of their own Thursday and has not said whether Dugan will be one of them.

They are expected to argue in the morning that the government failed to meet its burden and request dismissal, which is unlikely to be granted. The new timeline puts closing arguments on Thursday afternoon and deliberations into Friday.

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