Hannah Dugan conviction under review after appeals court ruling

A federal judge has postponed the sentencing of former Wisconsin judge Hannah Dugan while considering whether to overturn her conviction for helping an immigrant evade federal immigration agents.

US District Judge Lynn Adelman heard arguments on Wednesday from Dugan’s legal team, which said her conviction was based on an invalid legal interpretation.

Adelman did not issue an immediate ruling and gave no indication of when a decision might come .

Dugan, 67, was convicted in December on a felony obstruction charge linked to a 2025 incident at a Milwaukee courthouse involving immigration officers and a Honduran immigrant.

Her lawyer, Steven Biskupic, argued the conviction should be thrown out after a federal appeals court overturned a similar immigration-related obstruction case in Virginia earlier this year.

“Our primary argument is this was an invalid theory of conviction,” Biskupic told the court.

Prosecutors argued the Virginia ruling did not apply to Dugan’s case and urged the judge to uphold the conviction.

“The court should stick with its ruling,” said Richard Frohling, acting US attorney for eastern Wisconsin.

Dugan faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison, although federal sentencing guidelines suggest probation is more likely for a non-violent offender with no prior criminal record.