MILWAUKEE (CN) - Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan resigned over the weekend after she was found guilty in December of obstructing an ICE arrest in the courthouse.

"Governor, with a heavy heart, I submit to you this letter of resignation and respectfully request that you give it immediate effect," Dugan said in a letter to Governor Tony Evers. "My faith in God and in our legal system leads me to trust that in the long run justice will be served for our independent judiciary and for me."

In December, a jury found Dugan, 66, guilty of obstructing Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers following a four-day trial. Jurors acquitted her on the lesser charge of concealing an individual set for deportation.

The government successfully argued Dugan intentionally separated the six-person arrest team so that Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, who was in her courtroom for a pretrial hearing in an unrelated matter and had been living in the country illegally for more than a decade, could evade them.  

Dugan served for nearly 10 years on the Milwaukee County Circuit Court bench. After the conviction, she faced threats of impeachment from the Wisconsin state Assembly.

"As you know, I am the subject of unprecedented federal legal proceedings, which are far from concluded...I am pursuing this fight for myself and for our independent judiciary," Dugan said. "However, the Wisconsin citizens that I cherish deserve to start the year with a judge on the bench in Milwaukee County Branch 31 rather than have the fate of that court rest in a partisan fight in the state Legislature."

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Assembly Majority Leader Tyler August released a statement a day after Dugan's conviction all but ordering her to step down, threatening impeachment if she does not act.

"Wisconsinites deserve to know their judiciary is impartial and that justice is blind," the Assembly members said. "Judge Hannah Dugan is neither, and her privilege of serving the people of Wisconsin has come to an end."

The release, titled "Dugan Must Go," points to an article of the Wisconsin Constitution which precludes anyone who has been convicted of a felony involving "a violation of public trust" from being eligible for any office.

Dugan's prosecution has drawn national attention, characterized by the left as an aggressive escalation in President Donald Trump's pursuit to strike fear in and control the judicial branch.

Her own attorneys have told reporters that the case amounted to political persecution. U.S. Attorney Brad Schimel told press after the verdict that the case was not about a "larger political battle."

"The defendant is certainly not evil, nor is she a martyr for some greater cause. We all must peacefully accept this verdict," Schimel said.

Dugan was elected to the Branch 31 bench in 2016 and reelected in 2022. Before joining the bench, she spent much of her career working with legal aid organizations including the Catholic Charities of Southeastern Wisconsin, according to her legal defense fund.

Former Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett took the stand as an unexpected character witness for Dugan on the last day of her criminal trial. He told the jury that the two have known each other for over 50 years, and that she is an honest and good person.

During the four-day trial at the Milwaukee federal courthouse, dozens of witnesses described in painstaking detail the events of April 18, when officers from ICE, FBI and the Drug Enforcement Agency arrived at the Milwaukee County Courthouse to arrest Flores-Ruiz.

The arrest team attracted plenty of attention despite their plain clothes, and Dugan's clerk notified her of their presence almost immediately that morning. She walked into the hallway and ordered the agents to speak to Chief Judge Carl Ashley before taking any action.

From there, she rescheduled Flores-Ruiz's hearing and guided him and his lawyer to leave through the jury door, down a private hallway and out a door that led into the public hallway where ICE officers were waiting.

She can be heard on courtroom audio saying "I'll do it. I'll take the heat" before escorting them out, which the prosecution presented as evidence of her intent to conceal the pair. However, the lawyer said that she knew Dugan from prior events for women in law and took the interaction as a mentoring moment.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court suspended Dugan with pay after her arrest. By resigning, she will no longer collect her salary. She has asked U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman, a Bill Clinton appointee, to set aside her conviction.

Evers' office could not be reached by press time.

Source: Courthouse News Service