Dugan's defense case wraps with testimony by ex-Milwaukee mayor

The lightning-fast defense case featured three fact witnesses: two judges and a defense lawyer. Ex-Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett attested to Dugan's character.

Tom Barrett (Photo by Handout/DNCC via Getty Images)

This story is part of ongoing All Rise News live coverage of Judge Dugan’s trial in Milwaukee.

Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan called four witnesses in rapid fire before wrapping up her defense case within an hour with a prominent character witness.

Former Mayor Tom Barrett told the jury: “I think she is extremely honest, and I think she will tell you how she feels.”

A former mayor, diplomat, U.S. congressman, and state lawmaker, Barrett told a jury pulled from residents of the Eastern District of Wisconsin that he has known Dugan for 50 years. He said that he wasn’t a witness to any of the events of the case, but he was speaking as someone who has known her since she was 11 or 12 years old.

Like the other witnesses, Barrett’s testimony was brief, designed to persuade the jury that Dugan is not the type of person who would mislead or conceal.

“The undisputed evidence”

Prosecutors accuse Dugan of having hid undocumented immigrant Eduardo Flores-Ruiz from federal agents waiting just outside her courtroom.

It’s undisputed that Dugan led Flores-Ruiz and his attorney through a jury door that led to a restricted hallway, and both of them exited into the public hallway where federal agents were waiting.

On Thursday, Flores-Ruiz’s public defender Mercedes de la Rosa testified that Dugan specifically instructed them to enter that public hallway. Prosecutors allege that Dugan wanted them to go into a private stairwell to evade arrest, but de la Rosa repeatedly denied that.

Dugan’s attorneys argued that the case shouldn’t even reach jury deliberations because such testimony devastated the government’s case.

“The undisputed evidence here is that E.F.R. and his lawyer used a non-public corridor, at Judge Dugan’s direction, to return to the public hallway,” their motion states. “That non-public corridor ran parallel to the side wall of her courtroom. It led to a door that opened into the same public hallway as the main courtroom doors. That separate door was under twelve feet to the right of the main courtroom doors, as viewed from the public hallway.”

U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman took the defense motion under advisement.

“A different animal”

Dugan chose not to testify in her defense.

Instead, Dugan called two of her fellow Milwaukee County Circuit Court judges: Judges Katie Kegel and Laura Gramling Perez.

Both reviewed email chains showing how their court system had been grappling with immigration enforcement in their courthouse during Trump 2.0.

“People have been snatched up out of my gallery while waiting for their hearing,” Kegel wrote in one message.

Asked about the email, Kegel said: “Someone would come into the gallery and take them out — usually in handcuffs, sometimes not.”

Prosecutors had claimed that such ICE arrests were common, but the evidence emphasized that they were not.

“Immigration enforcement at courthouses is hardly routine and worthy of our attention,” Judge Nidhi Kashyap wrote in one of the messages.

Emails also showed Judge Dugan’s eagerness for Milwaukee County Circuit Court to clarify its policy to confront the challenge.

“The ICE detentions are a different animal—and currently the historic protocols are now shifting quickly,” she wrote. “I have seen in my court more people not showing up for court dates. I have had two immigration attorneys asking me just today about what protocols are in place.”

She added later: “We are in some uncharted waters with some very serious and even potentially tragic community interests at risk in the balance.”

“Cooperating with ICE?”

During opening statements, Dugan’s attorney Steven Biskupic said that ICE enforcement in the courthouses sparked “anxiety, confusion and paranoia.”

According to the emails, Judge Danielle Shelton appeared to be one of those who were confused: “Does this mean Milwaukee County is cooperating with ICE?”

Prosecutors must show that Dugan acted with corrupt intent, but the defense case established that no final policy for dealing with ICE arrests was established, only drafts and outside trainings.

During the trial, the jury saw footage of a mask-wearing defense attorney photographing federal agents in the hallway. One of the agents branded her “mask lady” in a private group text.

That woman, public defender Maura Gingerich, took the stand with a face-mask on Thursday, clarifying that she wore it for “health reasons.” She testified that she photographed the men because she believed that they were agents and she wanted her office to send the pictures to Chief Judge Carl Ashley to clarify the court’s policy. Ashley previously testified about his strong opposition to ICE arrest inside the court system.

Closing arguments are slated to begin at 11:45 a.m. Central Time. The jury could get the case by this afternoon.

Read the motion for a judgment of acquittal here.