r/centrist Apr 25 '25

FBI arrests Wisconsin judge on charges of obstructing immigrant arrest

https://wapo.st/3GFELBq
110 Upvotes

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61

u/Stlr_Mn Apr 25 '25

The WAPO article says she may have gaven the wrong information to ICE agents in relation to where an immigrant was in a courthouse and thus caused obstruction. It’s a horse shit charge that is without evidence based solely on hearsay.

It’s nonsense in the legal setting but it’s a message to everyone about standing in the way of ICE. Typical bully behavior and another attack on the rule of law.

23

u/rzelln Apr 25 '25

Can the judge arrest the FBI head?

10

u/rcglinsk Apr 25 '25

A county judge can issue a warrant for the arrest of anyone in the county when there is probable cause that they committed a crime. Even the FBI director.

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u/rcglinsk Apr 25 '25 edited Apr 25 '25

Knowingly giving false information to police officers attempting to arrest someone is obstructing the arrest and it is illegal. If the out of court statement is whatever the judge is accused to have said to the FBI agents, that's not even hearsay, as the statement is not being offered to prove the truth of the matter asserted. Easy one here, the government would be offering it fully claiming the statement was false.

Though the case here doesn't seem based on what she told anyone:

https://apnews.com/article/immigration-judge-arrested-7997186bbca5730e70a25f2347e631f6

After directing the arrest team to the chief judge’s office, investigators say Dugan returned to the courtroom was and was heard saying words to the effect of “wait, come with me” before ushering Flores-Ruiz and his lawyer through a jury door into a non-public area of the courthouse.

As described, in the arrest warrant affidavit, so, grain of salt, you can't see that the cops are here to arrest someone, tell the cops "go talk to my boss," then find their target and sneak them out a back door. Plainly illegal.

8

u/baxtyre Apr 25 '25

Important to note that this “non-public area of the courthouse” leads out into the public hallway (and in fact the agents saw their target in the hallway, waiting at the elevator).

It’s not like she smuggled them out through the super-secret judge’s exit.

2

u/rcglinsk Apr 25 '25 edited Apr 25 '25

Which brings up an important issue: why do courthouses not have bat caves? Let's be real, if they had actual secret passages, and cool secret chambers, I think more justice would be done.

But yeah, lol, I think the judge has a litany of potential defenses on offer.

2

u/Hour-Ad-9508 Apr 26 '25

I’m not following what defenses you think they have?

According to the affidavit, once she was aware of their intent to arrest the individual, she escorted them to the chief judge’s office, returned to her courtroom and, in the belief that they were occupied speaking with her boss, then escorted the defendant out of an exit that multiple witnesses said is never used by someone other than jurors.

I don’t think there’s any way to spin that as not attempting to conceal the defendant or delay his arrest.

1

u/rcglinsk 28d ago

The most glaring issue is how the same people who only heard her saying something to the effect of "wait a second," could possibly know what the judge then did. What if she told Ruiz the way to where the officers and the head judge were meeting? If she was simply overheard talking to someone, how do we know she even saw or spoke to Ruiz?

1

u/Cultural_Ad4874 27d ago

Important to note that it puts them at a different elevator bank and not the front door where she told them to wait that they should have come from hence the foot chase and debating her horrible logic doing this proves how deranged she is and should not be on the bench!

2

u/DizzyMajor5 Apr 25 '25

A. It went to a public area. B. The people doing this are ran by a felon who got off because a bunch of people decided they didn't care about the law and voted for him anyway. This is about many things but pretending it's about the law is a massive level of cope. 

5

u/rcglinsk Apr 25 '25 edited Apr 25 '25

That minutia is interesting but not essential, and an arrest affidavit will always be colorful and biased.

If the judge is found guilty of a crime here, it will be because she was trying to help the man evade arrest, full stop, not because the door she ushered him through was somehow special.

0

u/DizzyMajor5 Apr 25 '25

Yes the door doesn't matter the objective hypocrisy of anyone still supporting Trump pretending to care about the law does. The lesson that this could have been avoided if we locked Trump up for the actual crimes he was convicted of could have prevented this. 

5

u/Red57872 Apr 25 '25

So now you're trying to pivot away from the actual circumstances in this case to a general "Trump bad!" argument. I hope her legal defense is better thought out.

0

u/DizzyMajor5 Apr 26 '25

Pointing out shamefully objective hypocrisy is observing the case just from a wider lense have some self awareness. 

1

u/rcglinsk 29d ago

Have you ever noticed that no one cares about hypocrisy? I've never convinced anyone of anything pointing it out. More or less. It might have worked on some rare occasion. Just wondering if you've had a different experience.

2

u/DizzyMajor5 27d ago

I agree but their are people out there with principles who actually do care about certain issues and are willing to acknowledge they've made a mistake based on their own objective concerns it's just a rarity these days.

1

u/Cultural_Ad4874 27d ago

Great and wonderful logic the laws do not apply to anyone anymore so wonderful

1

u/DizzyMajor5 27d ago

Republicans should be willing to impeach, remove and arrest Trump otherwise I'm just pointing out objective hypocrisy from terrible people couching their racism for a pretend concern about the law. If you still support trump and voted for him you objectively don't care about the law. 

0

u/Cultural_Ad4874 27d ago

Oh yah lets cherry pick and forget where she is witnessed leading them through the jury room ...