Judges Who Break Federal Legislation Can And Ought to Be Prosecuted

Because the previous saying goes, birds of a feather flock collectively. 

How else are you able to make sense of or clarify how two unrelated state court docket judges, 1,072 miles (Massachusetts and Wisconsin) and 7 years aside, broke federal regulation by actively aiding an unlawful alien evade seize by federal brokers who had the entire crucial immigration paperwork to detain or take away the alien from the USA?   

The details of their circumstances are eerily comparable, forcing you to ask your self, “What the heck was this choose pondering when she knew the feds had already prosecuted one other choose for doing the very same factor?”

And who’re the members of this distinctive judicial sisterhood? Milwaukee County Circuit Courtroom Decide Hannah C. Dugan and Massachusetts District Courtroom Decide Shelley Joseph. Dugan has already been “relieved” of her official duties by the Wisconsin state Supreme Courtroom and “prohibited from exercising the powers of a circuit court docket choose,” whereas Joseph has pending formal expenses filed towards her by the Massachusetts Fee on Judicial Conduct for severe moral and authorized violations.

Decide Shelley Joseph of Boston

In 2018, Decide Shelley Joseph was charged by the U.S. Justice Division for conspiring along with her bailiff to set an unlawful alien free from her courtroom. Jose Medina-Perez was a twice-deported unlawful alien, whom the Newton, Massachusetts, police arrested on expenses of narcotics possession and being a fugitive from Pennsylvania. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued a federal immigration detainer warrant on him that was forwarded to the police division, the court docket, and all attorneys concerned within the prosecution.   

On March 30, 2018, Joseph known as Medina-Perez’s case. However Joseph ordered the ICE agent current out of her courtroom, stating that if the defendant was launched, he can be launched into the foyer of the courthouse. The ICE agent exited the courtroom and waited within the public foyer. 

As an alternative, the Pennsylvania fugitive warrant was dismissed, the unlawful alien was launched on his personal recognizance for the drug prosecution, and the choose informed her bailiff to make use of his safety entry card to open a rear safety exit of the courthouse so Medina-Perez may escape the ICE agent ready within the courthouse foyer.

When a federal grand jury indicted her and her bailiff for obstruction of justice, the U.S. Lawyer for the District of Massachusetts, Andrew Lelling, mentioned that officers of a court docket can’t “choose and select” the “federal legal guidelines we comply with, or use our private views to justify violating the regulation.” 

The U.S. Courtroom of Appeals for the first Circuit rejected Joseph’s declare that as a state choose she was one way or the other immune from prosecution by the Feds. The prosecution was solely dismissed after the choose agreed to submit herself to the state fee on judicial misconduct, which has filed formal expenses towards her after its investigation discovered that she had violated a number of legal guidelines and the judicial code of conduct.

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Decide Hannah C. Dugan of Milwaukee

Quick ahead to 2025 and the copycat case of state Decide Hannah C. Dugan and one other beforehand deported unlawful alien who had reentered the nation.

In accordance with the FBI felony criticism, Eduardo Flores-Ruiz entered the U.S. illegally and was deported again to Mexico in 2013. 

On March 18, 2025, Flores-Ruiz was charged in Milwaukee Nation Circuit Courtroom with three counts of “Home Battery, Abuse and Infliction of Bodily Ache or Damage.” Alerted to his arrest, six federal brokers deliberate to arrest Flores-Ruiz after his first look within the native court docket. The six, consisting of an ICE officer, a Customs and Border Safety officer, two FBI brokers, and two DEA brokers, wearing plain garments to conduct the courthouse arrest in a secure and low-key method.

They recognized themselves to a court docket safety guard and defined the aim of their go to. The guard’s supervisor requested the group to attend to arrest Flores-Ruiz till after his look in courtroom 615 was accomplished. They agreed and proceeded to Dugan’s courtroom. 

As soon as there, the 2 FBI brokers suggested the courtroom deputy that they have been there to arrest Flores-Ruiz after his court docket look. 

Whereas they have been ready outdoors the courtroom, Flores-Ruiz’s public defender took photographs of the arrest group, minus a Drug Enforcement Administration agent who was not seated with the group.

When Dugan was knowledgeable that ICE brokers have been within the hallway ready to arrest Flores-Ruiz, she blurted out that was “absurd,” left the bench, and with one other unnamed choose, angrily confronted the brokers within the hallway. She informed them they wanted to go away the courthouse. 

When Dugan was knowledgeable they have been there to effectuate an arrest, she requested if they’d a judicial warrant. An agent politely knowledgeable her that he had an administrative warrant, to which Dugan said (incorrectly) that he wanted a judicial warrant. The agent provided to indicate the warrant to the choose, however as a substitute, she ordered the brokers to talk to the chief choose, demanding they report back to his workplace.

Dugan even escorted the arrest group to the reception space of the chief choose’s workplace, not figuring out that one agent had remained behind outdoors of her courtroom. 

Dugan then went again to her courtroom, however not earlier than she seemed down the hallway for extra brokers.

Dugan then escorted Flores-Ruiz and his lawyer out of the courtroom via the jury door, a safe door solely used for deputies, juries, court docket workers, and in-custody defendants being escorted by deputies. 

She returned to her courtroom and performed hearings in different circumstances on the morning’s docket, by no means telling the prosecutor or the victims in Flores-Ruiz’s case (who have been within the courtroom the entire time), that the case had been secretly adjourned with no public announcement. 

Luckily, regardless of Dugan’s try to assist Flores-Ruiz escape federal brokers, there have been extra brokers ready outdoors the courthouse. They have been capable of establish and seize him a couple of block from the courthouse after he began working away. 

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Prison Criticism Towards Dugan

Dugan was arrested after the FBI filed a felony criticism towards her for violating 18 U.S.C. Sections 1505 and 1071. The previous makes it a federal crime to hinder a continuing earlier than a division or company whereas the latter makes it a federal crime to hide an individual from arrest. Each crimes are punishable by a most 5 years in jail. 

The case will now be evaluated by the native U.S. lawyer, who will determine whether or not to current the case to a federal grand jury for indictment. 

As considered one of us has written elsewhere, the Feds may (and sure ought to) think about including the extra cost of 18 U.S.C. §1324, which makes it a federal crime when a defendant knowingly or in a reckless disregard of the truth that an alien has entered illegally “conceals, harbors, or shields from detection, or makes an attempt to hide, harbor, or protect from detection, such alien in anyplace, together with any constructing.” 

Like all defendants, Dugan is presumed harmless till confirmed responsible however the proof towards her appears overwhelming.

Within the meantime, Dugan might need to give Joseph a name and discover out whether or not what Joseph did in 2018 was price it and ask what the longer term holds for her given her alleged violation of federal regulation.

And by the best way, she would possibly need to examine some American historical past. We settled the problem of whether or not federal regulation prevails over state regulation and whether or not state officers can defy the federal authorities in 1865.

Her aspect misplaced.

Syndicated with permission from The Each day Sign.