Hannah Dugan Biography – Hannah Dugan Wiki

Hannah Dugan is a judge on the Milwaukee County Circuit Court in Wisconsin. She has served as a judge on the Milwaukee County Circuit Court since she was elected to Branch 31 of the Circuit Court in 2016, defeating incumbent Paul Rifelj, an appointee of Scott Walker, the Republican former governor of Wisconsin.

Judge Dugan primarily handles cases in the misdemeanor division. She faced no opposition for re-election in 2022. Her current judicial term runs through 2028, with circuit court judges serving six-year terms.

Judge Dugan received her bachelor’s degree in arts from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1981. She earned her Juris Doctorate from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1987 and started working at Legal Action of Wisconsin, an organization offering free legal services.

She worked as a lawyer specializing in housing, public benefits and Social Security cases, and was the coordinator of the organization’s pro bono attorney program from 1990 to 1994, according to her LinkedIn page. Dugan has taught law and graduate students at Marquette University in Milwaukee.

Judge Dugan was the president of the Milwaukee Bar Association from 1999-2000 and worked three years as the executive director for Catholic Charities of Southeastern Wisconsin, Inc. She has also served on the Milwaukee County Ethics Board.

In 2021, Judge Dugan was a finalist in the “Most Trusted Public Official” category in the Best of Milwaukee contest in The Shepherd Express, an alternative publication.

Hannah Dugan Age

Judge Hannah C. Dugan was born in 1959.

Hannah Dugan Political Party

Judge Hannah Dugan is nonpartisan. She lost a judicial race in 2012. During the campaign, she said she was nonpartisan and would be impartial, according to the Journal Sentinel. In 2023, Judge Dugan dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Republican Party of Wisconsin that argued a get-out-the-vote effort in Milwaukee violated the law.

Hannah Dugan Salary

Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan receives an annual salary of $262,300.

Arrest

Wisconsin judge Hannah Dugan was arrested by federal authorities at the Milwaukee County Courthouse on Friday April 25, 2025. According to a 13-page complaint, Dugan is accused of obstructing a U.S. agency and concealing an individual to prevent an arrest. The two charges carry a maximum penalty of six years in prison and a $350,000 fine, but sentences in cases involving nonviolent offenses typically are much shorter.

Specifically, the complaint says Dugan assisted Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, an undocumented Mexican immigrant, avoid being arrested by federal immigration officials at the Milwaukee County Courthouse after he appeared in her courtroom for a pretrial conference on April 18. Flores-Ruiz is facing three misdemeanor battery counts. Each of the three Class A misdemeanors has a maximum penalty of nine months in jail and a $10,000 fine.

Two federal agents eventually chased Flores-Ruiz down outside the courthouse and apprehended him at West State Street and North 10th Street downtown, according to the complaint.

On April 25, Dugan appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen C. Dries during a brief hearing in a packed courtroom at the federal courthouse. Dugan made no public comments during the brief hearing, according to the Journal Sentinel.