Dugan primer: Judicial immunity has limits
(The Center Square) – There’s another deep dive into the case law behind judicial immunity in Wisconsin as federal prosecutors continue with their case against Milwaukee County’s arrested judge.
The Institute for Reforming Government on Wednesday released its latest Court Watch primer, this time focusing on Judge Hannah Dugan.
“A Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge, Hannah C. Dugan, faces federal charges for allegedly directing a defendant, Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, to exit her courtroom through a jury door to evade federal agents executing an administrative warrant,” the primer states. “Dugan is claiming judicial immunity, arguing her actions were official judicial acts, exempt from prosecution because she acted within her role as a judge.”
But IRG’s Jake Curtis said the idea that a judge has unlimited power to do as they please is not only misplaced, it’s not based in legal reality.
“Judicial immunity is not a blanket defense that protects judges from any and all conduct,” Curtis said. “Judge Dugan’s defense will hinge on whether the court will view her alleged acts as exercising her authority within the scope of her role as a state judge or not.”
The IRG primer points to a 2019 federal case, United States v. Richmond Joseph, which Curtis said mirrors Dugan’s case in that judge a Massachusetts federal judge Shelly Richmond Joseph “schemed to help a defendant escape via a rear exit, deemed a non-judicial use.”
“Dugan’s defense asserts absolute judicial immunity, claiming her actions were part of her courtroom management authority and protected under common law principles dating back to 17th-century England. However, when Judge Richmond Joseph claimed immunity, the court found it inapplicable to allegedly corrupt acts,” the IRG primer reads. “The prosecution contends that directing a defendant to evade arrest is not a judicial act, likening it to aiding a fugitive, and falls outside her jurisdiction and scope of her work as a state judge. In Richmond Joseph, the court upheld the indictment, noting that corrupt conduct falls outside judicial immunity.”
Federal prosecutors eventually dropped the charges against Judge Joseph, but the IRG primer explained that other federal cases have largely struck down the idea of limitless judicial immunity.
Dugan has both pleaded not guilty and filed a motion to dismiss the charges against her. She is facing six years in prison if convicted. She is charged with both concealing a person from arrest and obstruction of justice.
IRG’s report states that it is not clear whether Dugan will actually go to trial on both charges, or whether the court will fully answer her legal theory of unlimited judicial immunity.
Dugan is due back in federal court in Milwaukee in July.
