What We Know About The Illegal Immigrant Allegedly Helped By A Wisconsin Judge To Evade ICE

Authored by Janice Hisle and Savannah Hulsey Pointer via The Epoch Times,

The man arrested by immigration authorities in Milwaukee – despite a Wisconsin judge’s alleged attempt to shield him – is being held in a neighboring county’s jail as controversy continues to swirl around the case.

Eduardo Flores Ruiz, 30, was locked up in the Ozaukee County Jail awaiting further court action as of April 30.

He is accused of injuring three people in a recent domestic dispute, online records show.

The Mexico native is the defendant whom Judge Hannah Dugan is accused of assisting in an April 18 incident at the Milwaukee County Circuit Court.

Flores Ruiz appeared at the court for a hearing on that date, but it didn’t proceed, federal authorities say, after Dugan allegedly took actions to thwart Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers who were poised to arrest the defendant and begin deportation proceedings.

Federal officials accuse the judge of helping Flores Ruiz and his lawyer to exit through a restricted-use door. Officers, however, were able to arrest him after a foot chase outside the courthouse.

He was previously deported to his home country in 2013, before being accused in the domestic violence case that was assigned to Dugan, officials said.

The state Supreme Court suspended Dugan while she contests charges of concealing Flores Ruiz and obstructing ICE.

Dugan, who was arrested on April 25, is set for her next court hearing as a defendant on May 15 in Milwaukee federal court.

This 2016 photo shows Judge Hannah Dugan in Milwaukee, Wis. Lee Matz/Milwaukee Independent via AP

Milwaukee County court and police records reveal more information about the incident that landed Flores Ruiz in Dugan’s court on three domestic abuse-battery charges.

Three people told police that Flores Ruiz injured them during a March 12 verbal and physical altercation, after which two of them sought hospital treatment.

Miguel Mendoza-Figueroa alleged that Flores Ruiz “intentionally … struck him multiple times in his body and face, causing pain and scratches during a verbal argument about loud music,” the police report says. 

The man reported being punched about 30 times.

When Deyci Torres Sierra, identified as Miguel’s girlfriend, tried to intervene, Flores Ruiz “struck her multiple times in her head” with his fist, inflicting pain, the report says.

A second woman, Maria Sierra Chihuahua, said she, too, tried to break up the fight, and Flores Ruiz “elbowed her in her upper left arm.”

Police said that, when questioned at the scene, Flores Ruiz described the incident as “a mutual fight” between himself and Mendoza-Figueroa, a court record shows.

The defendant is set to appear on the three charges in the county court again on May 14. Each of the charges is a Class A Misdemeanor, punishable upon conviction by a fine of up to $10,000 and nine months behind bars.

Dugan remains in online records as the judge assigned to his case, despite her temporary suspension from duty. The Epoch Times was unable to reach the court’s chief justice for clarification.

The Epoch Times sought comment from Flores Ruiz’s lawyer, Mercedes de la Rosa, and the local prosecutor handling the case, Kylan Reilly, and received no reply prior to publication.