A federal judge on Tuesday denied Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan’s motion to dismiss charges against her for helping an illegal immigrant evade ICE agents.
Last month, a federal magistrate judge ruled that Hannah Dugan is not entitled to dismiss her federal case based on judicial immunity.
“Dugan moves to dismiss the indictment under Fed. R. Crim. P. 12(b) on the grounds that she, as a judge, is immune from criminal prosecution for judicial acts, that her prosecution violates the limits of federal power under the Tenth Amendment, and that the indictment could be dismissed under the canon of constitutional avoidance,” magistrate judge Nancy Joseph wrote.
On Tuesday, US District Judge Lynn Adelman, a Bill Clinton appointee, ruled that Hannah Dugan has no basis for immunity from prosecution.
“There is no basis for granting immunity simply because some of the allegations in the indictment describe conduct that could be considered ‘part of the judge’s job,'” the judge wrote in his ruling.
“As the magistrate judge noted, the same is true in the bribery prosecutions, concededly valid, where the judges were prosecuted for performing official acts intertwined with bribery,” the judge wrote according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
As reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman has denied a motion to dismiss the federal case against Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan, clearing the way for a trial on charges she obstructed immigration officers who came to her courtroom to make an arrest.
In the crucial, long-awaited ruling, Adelman turned back the arguments of Dugan’s high-powered legal team that the judge was immune from prosecution and that the case was an example of judicial overreach.
Adelman’s ruling agrees with the report of U.S. Magistrate Judge Nancy Joseph, who recommended in early July that the Dugan case should not be dismissed.
In April, a federal grand jury indicted Hannah Dugan for helping an illegal immigrant evade ICE agents.
She faces a possible six-year prison term and $350,000 in fines.
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