The second day of Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan’s trial Tuesday has focused on her interactions with officers in the courthouse.
Dugan is on trial on charges of obstruction and concealment for her role in the April incident in the courthouse. Prosecutors say that after she learned federal authorities were waiting outside her courtroom to arrest Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, she cleared a path for his escape by directing the agents to the chief judge's office and leading Flores-Ruiz out of her courtroom through a private door.
FBI agent Phillip Jackling testified on Tuesday that he was concerned that his team was divided when Dugan directed agents to speak with the chief judge.
He said Dugan appeared angry when she approached him in the hallway outside her courtroom. Another member of the arrest team, Customs and Border Protection Supervisory Officer Joseph Zuraw, said Dugan jerked her thumb over her shoulder and told him to “get out" before directing him to the chief judge's chambers.
Five of the arrest team's six members were in the chief judge's chambers or a hallway leading to the chambers when Flores-Ruiz left the courtroom, the agents testified. Zuraw said he remembered thinking: “This is a bad spot we’re in right now. It’s a bad spot because we don’t’ have a decent number of officers to safely make an arrest.”
The team followed him outside the courthouse and had to chase him down through traffic when they could have safely arrested him in the building, they testified.
Dugan’s defense attorneys have suggested that agents could have arrested Flores-Ruiz at any point in the hallway and Dugan shouldn't be blamed for their decision to wait until he was outside.
Prosecutors say Dugan knew the stakes of her actions when she directed the illegal immigrant to a private door while federal agents were in the courthouse to arrest the man.
“I’ll get the heat,” Dugan told her court reporter as they discussed who would assist Flores-Ruiz, according to courtroom audio played for the jury on Monday.
Flores-Ruiz was facing state battery charges and was scheduled to appear at a hearing in front of Dugan the morning of the incident. After his arrest by officers that morning, he was deported months later.
