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Notes -
Getting a conviction is a little surprising, if only because of the extremes of jury nullification we've seen in other cases. The split verdict is weirder and might help the inevitable (and quixotic) appeal, but there's probably going to be more mileage in hammering on the edges of the sentencing guidelines to avoid a prison sentence and pulling the next Dem president for a pardon.
I'm not sure if it says anything too big. The behavior here was especially brazen, the immigrant unusually unsympathetic, the arguments about primacy of criminal cases particularly unbelievable, Dugan's unwillingness to testify on her own behalf technically can't be used against her but definitely didn't help, and the feds were able to get a relatively friendly (or at least not-actively-unfriendly) jury pool.
It's information when you're not surprised, but it's not that strong a signal.
There's also a bit of messiness about the actual judicial seat. She's been suspended since April, but still is technically a judge. The state has previously argued that a felon has to resign from office at the time of conviction, not sentencing, but there's not really a direct enforcement mechanism and if there were it'd be run by the largely-sympathetic-to-Dugan judicial office. She could be impeached, but it takes two-thirds of the state Senate to do it, and while Republicans are a majority, they're only a slight majority. Especially if Dugan pushes appeals, she could end up keeping her seat til 2027 or even 2028.
That domestic violence received all that attention for fundraisers, charity, and politicking while also receiving "non-violent" mitigation cover is indeed maddening. It's easy for me to say that a murderer should serve his sentence before we extradite, deport, and pass him along. It's more difficult to say we can't suspend a guy's sentence of a few weeks to get him out of here while we have him. We could even use that space to jail more domestic violent non-violent domestic abusers!
The "You Know Who is a felon in office" snark writes itself. Maybe the right school will send the right offer to teach law from house arrest and all can be forgiven.
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