[2] After Oshkosh, he became principal at Howe High School in Grand Rapids from November 1884 to June 1888.
[3][7] In 1892, he was elected as district attorney of Wood County, Wisconsin, but lost re-election in 1894.
[11] During World War I, Goggins prosecuted alleged violators of the Espionage Act of 1917.
On March 1, 1918, he was appointed by Thomas Watt Gregory as the special assistant to the U.S. attorney general for the western district of Wisconsin to prosecute violators of the Act.
[11][7] Under federal judges A. L. Sanborn of Madison and Evan E. Evans of Chicago, he prosecuted espionage cases, including Judge John M. Becker of Monroe and Louis B. Nagler, former Wisconsin assistant secretary of state.
[1] He also tried the United States's case against Ada Griffith for the White Slave Traffic Act, which reached the U.S. Supreme Court.
[6][7] Goggins married Elizabeth A. Hooten of Clemonsville, Winnebago County, Wisconsin, on August 11, 1886.