The Milwaukee County Courthouse is a busy place. On most weekday mornings, starting at around 8 a.m., the hallways outside the criminal courts are filled with defendants, witnesses, lawyers and law enforcement officers.

It was no different on Friday, April 18. On that day, Eduardo Flores-Ruiz was set to appear for a pretrial conference before Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan. Weeks earlier, Flores-Ruiz had been arrested and charged with three counts of domestic battery. The charges alleged he beat up two people — a man and a woman — landing them in the hospital. The victims were waiting in the courtroom.

In addition to facing charges for battery, Flores-Ruiz had another problem: he was an illegal immigrant. ICE officers were alerted by Milwaukee County to his arrest, and they matched his booking fingerprints to another set taken at his prior deportation.

Knowing Flores-Ruiz would probably be in court, ICE agents went to the courthouse on the morning of April 18, checked in with court personnel, identified themselves and explained their plan to arrest Flores-Ruiz after the hearing. Law enforcement officers frequently arrest individuals in county courts and jails. The reason is simple: it’s a safe and controlled environment, free of weapons and with a significant law enforcement presence nearby.

This was all routine and there were no objections. ICE agents explained and agreed to arrest Flores-Ruiz in the hallway after the hearing was complete.

Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.

Judge Hannah Dugan had unusual request for defendant

Dugan, though, had a different idea. According to an affidavit filed in federal court by an FBI case agent, inside Dugan’s courtroom, a defense attorney asked for a sidebar and informed her that ICE was in the hallway and would be arresting Flores-Ruiz after his hearing. Dugan replied that the situation was “absurd.” She ordered Flores-Ruiz to sit in the jury box and stay there. That was quite unusual (to say the least).

According to several witnesses, Dugan then walked out into the hallway where she confronted the ICE officers face to face. She demanded that the agents leave the courthouse. Upon their presentation of an arrest warrant for Flores-Ruiz and, after being reminded that the hallway outside her courtroom was a public space, Dugan demanded that the agents see the Chief Judge and physically escorted the agents through several doors and into the Chief Judge’s chambers, away from the courtroom.

The Chief Judge’s clerk apparently said that he was not there, but then later the Chief Judge appeared. The precise details are irrelevant, because the upshot was the ICE agents were waylaid in the Chief Judge’s chambers for several minutes to sort out the issue of the warrant.

Meanwhile, Dugan retreated to her own courtroom and adjourned the hearing, apparently without speaking to either the prosecutor or the victims, and spirited Flores-Ruiz and his attorney away, through the “jury door” into a non-public area. They proceeded to depart via a private hallway where a party would not be expected to leave the courtroom.

Opinion: As attorneys, we recognized judge’s courthouse arrest was not standard practice

Unfortunately for Flores-Ruiz, he was spotted by one of the agents who followed him down the elevator and outside the courthouse, calling other members of the team for backup. When confronted in an open space, Flores-Ruiz then “sprinted down the street” and after a “foot chase,” officers apprehended him.

Instead of an orderly, safe and predictable arrest in the hallway of the county courthouse, law enforcement officers were forced to run down a fugitive on the sidewalks of Milwaukee.

Dugan neglected duty to hear case, interfered with federal authorities

Judge Dugan deserves a chance to defend herself. But if these facts are proven at trial, Judge Dugan obstructed justice and prevented the arrest of a fugitive. She placed the agents, members of the public and Flores-Ruiz at risk by helping him “make a run” to evade arrest.

There is a time and a place to express opposition to President Trump’s immigration policies or the way some of them are being executed. One of us (Rick Esenberg) has been highly critical of the notion that potential deportees can be denied hearings that they would otherwise be entitled to because, as the Vice President has suggested, it would take “too long.” You can even believe that the United States should not protect its border or enforce its laws about who can and cannot remain in the country.

Letters: US has massive national debt and all Democrats do is criticize with no remedies

But respect for democracy includes respect for the laws that our elected representatives have enacted. It means honoring the rule of law and not simply ignoring laws that we do not like. Dugan was not adjudicating Flores-Ruiz’s immigration status. She was a state court judge who was supposed to hear the serious criminal charges against him. She neglected that duty, interfered with the enforcement of federal law, and put law enforcement officers in danger and ignored the rights of crime victims. It is regrettable that a sitting judge had to be arrested. If she does not face consequences, it will embolden others and further undermine the rule of law. 

Rick Esenberg is President of the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL). Dan Lennington is a former federal and state prosector, who has prosecuted many illegal immigrants and dozens of cases in the Milwaukee County courthouse. He is also the Vice President and Deputy Counsel at WILL.