The illegal immigrant whom Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan is accused of helping evade arrest has accepted a plea deal in which he admitted to entering the United States illegally.
Mexican national Eduardo Flores-Ruiz faces up to two years in prison and a $250,000 fine under the terms of a plea deal filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin on June 23.
He is also subject to one year of supervised release. The plea deal states that Flores-Ruiz has agreed to be deported after completing a federal prison sentence.
According to the plea agreement, Flores-Ruiz first entered the United States illegally on Jan. 15, 2013, near Arizona. He was arrested and deported the next day but later re-entered the country.
Flores-Ruiz was arrested in Milwaukee on March 12 over a battery incident. He was subsequently charged with misdemeanor counts of battery, domestic abuse, and causing physical harm.
On April 18, when Flores-Ruiz was slated to appear before Dugan at a Milwaukee courthouse, Dugan allegedly escorted him out through a jury door and evaded immigration agents who were waiting to arrest him.
Federal officials stated that Flores-Ruiz escaped the courthouse and was apprehended by agents outside the building after a foot chase.
Dugan was suspended by Wisconsin’s Supreme Court and charged with obstructing a proceeding and concealing an individual to prevent his arrest.
FBI Director Kash Patel said on social media platform X that evidence indicates that Dugan “intentionally misdirected” federal immigration agents away from Flores-Ruiz, which allowed the illegal immigrant to evade arrest.
The judge has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
In a May 14 motion to dismiss the case, Dugan’s attorneys argued that it is “no ordinary criminal case, and Dugan is no ordinary criminal defendant,” while citing her job as a circuit court judge.
“The government’s prosecution of Judge Dugan is virtually unprecedented and entirely unconstitutional—it violates the Tenth Amendment and fundamental principles of federalism and comity reflected in that amendment and in the very structure of the United States Constitution,” the attorneys stated.
Homeland Security Department Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said:
“This criminal illegal alien has a laundry list of violent criminal charges including strangulation and suffocation, battery, and domestic abuse. Ruiz illegally entered the U.S. twice.”
The Epoch Times reached out to legal representatives for Flores-Ruiz and Dugan but received no response by publication time.
