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Hannah Dugan Sentencing In Doubt Again — New Appeals Court Ruling Could Overturn Her Conviction

The Hannah Dugan saga just got more complicated. Sentencing for the former Milwaukee County judge convicted of obstructing an ICE arrest at her courthouse was scheduled for June 3 — next Tuesday — but Judge Lynn Adelman has agreed to reconsider her conviction one more time before she faces punishment, based on a new appeals court ruling that may undercut the very law she was convicted under.

On April 16, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling in United States v. Hernandez that overturned a conviction for obstruction of an ICE warrant. The court held that an immigration enforcement operation — like an ICE arrest — is not the same as a “pending proceeding” under the federal statute used to convict Dugan. Dugan’s attorneys immediately filed a new motion arguing her conviction cannot stand under that reasoning. Washington Times

Federal prosecutors have pushed back hard, calling the 4th Circuit ruling “neither binding nor persuasive” and arguing it does “nothing to call into question this Court’s reasoning.” Prosecutors note the 7th Circuit — which actually covers Wisconsin — has reached the opposite conclusion, finding that ICE enforcement actions do constitute a “pending proceeding” under the statute. They are asking Adelman to move forward with sentencing as scheduled. Washington Times

The legal tension is real. Dugan’s attorneys argue that her split verdict — guilty of obstruction, not guilty of concealment — was already logically inconsistent, and that the 4th Circuit ruling makes the obstruction conviction legally untenable. “The factual and legal record in this case cannot be squared with the 4th Circuit holding,” they wrote. The Daily Beast

Judge Adelman — a Clinton appointee who will now be 86 years old when he sentences Dugan, having already denied her first round of acquittal and new trial motions in a 39-page April order — has not set a new sentencing date. Dugan faces a maximum of five years in federal prison on the felony obstruction conviction. She resigned from the bench in January following the December verdict. 13WHAM

Regardless of how Adelman rules, the case is almost certainly headed to the 7th Circuit — and possibly the U.S. Supreme Court. The question of whether a judge who leads a defendant out a courthouse side door to avoid waiting federal agents has obstructed a “proceeding” is now a live circuit split, and it touches directly on the administration’s entire immigration enforcement strategy.

Sources: Wisconsin Examiner | Urban Milwaukee — New Motion | Urban Milwaukee — Prosecutors Respond | WPR / Wisconsin Law Journal | Fox6 Milwaukee