Massachusetts Judge Shelley Joseph has been slapped with fresh charges after she was accused helping a twice-deported illegal immigrant evade Immigration and Customs Enforcement in April 2018

The Boston judge allegedly let Dominican migrant Jose Medina-Perez slip out the courthouse back door, blocking the migrant’s ICE arrest

She was indicted in 2019, but the charges were dropped in 2022, after she agreed to refer herself to the Massachusetts Commission on Judicial Conduct

The commission submitted it’s report accusing Joseph of being economical with the truth when questioned and she has been hit with new charges of ‘willful judicial misconduct’ and bringing ‘disrepute’ to the court system

The commission requested that the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court appoint a hearing officer to ‘preside over a public hearing,’ depending on the outcome, Joseph could lose her job as a judge

Judge Shelley Joseph [photo], was indicted in April 2019 for allegedly helping an illegal migrant evade ICE officials. Assigned to Boston Municipal Court after the charges were dropped, she now faces fresh charges from the Massachusetts Commission on Judicial Conduct

A judge in Massachusetts judge for a second time is facing charges after she was accused helping a twice-deported illegal immigrant evade Immigration and Customs Enforcement in April 2018.
Judge Shelley Joseph, 56, was indicted in 2019, a year after she allegedly allowed Jose Medina-Perez to walk out a back door of the Newton District Courthouse to avoid getting arrested by the ICE agents on duty. Joseph who is now assigned to Boston Municipal Court, is under fire again two years after the initial charges were dropped in 2022, when she ‘agreed to refer herself’ to the Massachusetts Commission on Judicial Conduct.
Submitting a 112-page report, the state’s Commission on Judicial Conduct accused Shelley Joseph of ‘willful judicial misconduct’ and bringing ‘disrepute’ to the court system, neither of which is a criminal charge. However, the commission has asked the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to appoint a hearing officer, likely a retired judge, to ‘preside over a public hearing’.
Depending on the outcome of the hearing, tentatively scheduled to happen within the next 60 days, Shelley Joseph could lose her job as a judge in the state.

Jose Medina-Perez, originally from the Dominican Republic, was in court on April 2, 2018, facing drug charges and a fugitive from justice warrant from Pennsylvania

Leading up to the latest development, back in 2019 Joseph faced a three count indictment by former US Attorney Andrew Lelling, a Trump appointee for the incident of April 2, 2018. However, those charges were dropped in 2022, when she ‘agreed to refer herself’ to the judicial commission.
The commission has said in their charging documents that Joseph failed ‘to cooperate and be candid and honest with judicial disciplinary authorities’.
Defense attorney Thomas Hoopes, said his client looks forward to a hearing ‘where all the circumstances finally become public’.
On April 2, 2018, Joseph was presiding over Medina-Perez’s case in the Newton District Court after he had been arrested four days earlier for drug possession and being a fugitive from justice in Pennsylvania.
Medina-Perez, a Dominican migrant, had been deported from the US once in January 2003 and again in 2007, according to ICE. 

The commission’s report states that after discussions between judge Joseph and the defense, she enabled a scenario where the defendant could escape the Newton District Courthouse [photo], after learning ICE agents were at the courthouse armed with a ‘civil immigration detainer’ for Medina-Perez as a ‘deportable alien’ on release from state custody

According to the commission’s report, Joseph learned that ICE agents were at the courthouse armed with a ‘civil immigration detainer’ that would have allowed them take custody of Medina-Perez as a ‘deportable alien’ if he were released from state custody.
Before the final afternoon hearing, the defense attorney for Medina-Perez allegedly colluded with the trial court officer to let his client sneak out a ‘sally-port door’ in the lockup downstairs to avoid the ICE agents.
As part of their alleged agreement, the defense attorney would get Medina-Perez to return to lockup after his court proceedings, per the report.
When the hearing began at around 2:48 pm, Judge Joseph agreed to a sidebar conference, where she was allegedly told that the prosecution no longer believed Medina-Perez was the same person subject to the Pennsylvania arrest warrant.
The prosecutor then said she would move to dismiss the fugitive charge and wouldn’t seek bail on the drug charges, according to the report.
This gave Judge Joseph two options: release Medina-Perez on his own recognizance or detain him in jail until trial.

The the Massachusetts Commission on Judicial Conduct said Shelley Joseph was ‘less than fully candid,’ when she faced questioning on the incident by the commission. She now faces fresh charges

The defense then told Joseph that ‘if he’s bailed out … ICE will pick him up,’ the report claims.
Joseph is said to have responded by saying: ‘ICE is gonna get him?’ and ‘What if we detain him?’
After this, Joseph ordered the session clerk to shut down the courtroom recording system and proceeded to have a roughly 52-second off-the-record conversation with the defense and the prosecution, according to the report.
Joseph’s statements inquiring about ICE and asking about detaining Medina-Perez gave a ‘reasonable impression’ that she was allowing him to evade the ICE agents that were in the lobby waiting, the commission said.
Ultimately, Joseph granted the defense’s request to let Medina-Perez go downstairs to the lockup, where he exited through the sally-port door at around 3:01pm, the commission said.
‘Judge Joseph was less than fully candid… n failing to explicitly acknowledge that she had conducted part of the hearing off the record,’ the commission stated, adding that she also didn’t immediately relay that she had granted the defense’s request to let Medina-Perez go downstairs.
Despite the courthouse flight, Boston-area ICE officers ultimately arrested Jose Medina-Perez a fortnight later, based on his immigration violations.