MILWAUKEE — Prosecutors played audio recordings Monday as they tried to show jurors that a Wisconsin judge knew what was at stake earlier this year when she directed an immigrant to a private door while federal agents were in the courthouse to arrest the man.

"I'll get the heat," Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan told her court reporter as they discussed who would assist Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, according to courtroom audio.

Federal prosecutors charged Dugan with obstruction and concealment in April, an extraordinary consequence of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. According to an FBI affidavit, a team of six federal agents and officers traveled to the Milwaukee County courthouse on April 18 to arrest Flores-Ruiz, 31, for being in the country illegally.

Flores-Ruiz was facing state battery charges and was scheduled to appear at a hearing in front of Dugan that morning. The team planned to arrest him when he came out of the hearing.

According to the affidavit, Dugan learned the agents and officers were in the hallway waiting for Flores-Ruiz. She left the courtroom and told them to consult with the chief judge. After several agents left to see the chief judge, she led Flores-Ruiz out of her courtroom through a private back door.

The private door led Flores-Ruiz back to the public hallway. Agents followed him outside and eventually arrested him after a foot chase. He was deported months later.

Courthouse video shows Dugan directing members of the arrest team toward the chief judge's office and she hasn't disputed that she led Flores-Ruiz out of the courtroom. The case hinges on whether she was intentionally trying to prevent his arrest.

Prosecutors opened her trial Monday in federal court in Milwaukee by working to show that the judge told the agents to see the chief judge to create an opening for Flores-Ruiz to escape.

FBI Special Agent Erin Lucker testified that while agents were in the chief judge's office, Dugan moved Flores-Ruiz's case to the top of her docket, scheduled another hearing for him and told him he could appear via Zoom before directing him out through the back door. All this was done within minutes, Lucker said.

Prosecutors played audio from her courtroom in which Dugan and her court reporter discussed who should lead Flores-Ruiz out of the courtroom. After the reporter offered to help him, Dugan said she she'd do it.

“I'll get the heat,” Dugan told her reporter.

The arrest team "did not expect a judge, sworn to uphold the law, would divide their arrest team and impede their efforts to do their jobs,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Keith Alexander told jurors.

Defense attorney Steven Biskupic countered that the judge had no intention of obstructing agents. He said during his opening statements that Dugan was following a draft courthouse policy that called for court personnel to refer immigration agents looking to make an arrest in the courthouse to supervisors.

Dugan didn't obstruct the team, Biskupic said, pointing out that two agents who didn't go to the chief judge's office could have arrested Flores-Ruiz as soon as he stepped into the public corridor but instead followed him outside before trying to apprehend him.

“Now, after the fact, everyone wants to blame Judge Dugan,” Biskupic told the jury.

The government’s case is expected to run through Thursday, with roughly two dozen witnesses expected to testify. The maximum sentence for the more serious charge, obstruction, is five years in prison, though federal judges have much discretion to go lower.

Ahead of the trial, U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman declined to dismiss the charges, saying there was no firmly established immunity for Dugan.

Democrats say Trump is looking to make an example of Dugan to blunt judicial opposition to immigration arrests. Dugan told police she and her family found threatening flyers at their homes this spring. The administration has branded her an activist judge.

Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, a fierce Trump loyalist running for Wisconsin governor next year, urged authorities to "lock her up" in a recent tweet.

___

Associated Press writer Ed White in Detroit contributed to this report.

Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.