Is a mugshot showing Judge Hannah Dugan in a grey polo shirt in front of a height chart real? No, that's not true: The image of the Milwaukee Judge who was arrested by the FBI for allegedly obstructing ICE agents appears to have been generated using generative artificial intelligence image makers. Two AI detection services rated the image more than 99% likely to have been created by generative ai.
The image appears in an April 26, 2025 X post (archived here) by The Brad Beringer Project under the title "BREAKING NEWS". It opened:
The mugshot of activist judge Hannah Dugan crying and wearing orange was confirmed an AI generated picture. Her actual mugshot was released this morning. Lookin' great Hannah! FAFO!
This is what the post looked like on X at the time this was written:
(Source: X.com screenshot by Lead Stories.)
Neither the FBI, US Attorney's office, nor federal district courts had publicly posted an arrest photo of Dugan at the time this was written. Lead Stories has reached out to all three agencies to request a copy of any jail booking photo or confirmation that one exists. We will update this fact check when they reply.
Meanwhile, Lead Stories submitted the portion of the above image that only includes her face to AI detection "sniffers", which collect a variety of data points about known ai-generated images and then compare those characteristics to photos submitted for analysis.
Both services used by Lead Stories found substantial evidence that the photo was a concoction by generative AI image creation tools.
The Media Forensics Lab at State University of New York/Buffalo operates DeepFake-O-Meter, which offers a variety of image, video and audio analysis tools. Facial analysis tools found a very high likelihood the image of Dugan is fake: 100% likely in one case and over 98% likely, according to four other tools on the site.
(Source: Cse.buffalo.edu/ubmdfl/deep-o-meter screenshot by Lead Stories)
Lead Stories also submitted the image to SightEngine, a Paris-based AI company that sells AI detection to clients. Its demo page rated the image 100% likely to be ai-generated.
(Source: SightEngine.com screenshot by LeadStories.com)
More Lead Stories fact checks about the Dugan case can be found here.
