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A Massachusetts judge may lose her job after she allegedly helped an illegal alien arrested on drug charges to evade ICE agents several years ago.

In April 2018, just a few months after she rose to the Massachusetts District Court bench, Judge Shelley Joseph presided over a hearing for Jose Medina-Perez, a native of the Dominican Republican who had been deported from the U.S. in 2003 and 2007.

‘ICE is gonna get him? … What if we detain him?’

Medina-Perez had been arrested on two misdemeanor counts of drug possession as well as a charge of fugitive from justice. ICE considered him a “deportable alien,” and agents were on hand at the courthouse to obtain custody of him as soon as he was released from the state.

During the hearing, Judge Joseph ordered the ICE agents to wait outside her courtroom, but these agents appeared to give several court officials cause for concern.

According to a press release from the Commission on Judicial Conduct, while conducting a sidebar conversation during the hearing, the defense attorney noted, “If he’s bailed out … ICE will pick him up.”

Joseph then replied, “ICE is gonna get him? … What if we detain him?”

Moments later, the defense attorney asked whether he could speak with Judge Joseph off the record. The judge then asked for the official recording of the proceeding to be turned off temporarily, in apparent violation of state law. The recording was stopped for approximately 52 seconds, the press release said.

During those 52 seconds, the defense attorney allegedly requested that he be allowed to escort his client back to the lockup area, where the defendant could slip “through the rear sally-port exit of the courthouse” and avoid the ICE agents who were waiting for him, the press release indicated.

When the court recording resumed, the defense attorney stammered: “I would ask that he, uh — I believe he has some property downstairs. I’d like to speak with him downstairs with the interpreter if I may,” the press release claimed, citing the court transcript.

Judge Joseph agreed: “That’s fine. Of course.” She later reiterated to the session clerk that the defense attorney had “asked if the interpreter can accompany him downstairs, um, to further interview him — and I’ve allowed that to happen.”

After another pretrial hearing was scheduled, Medina-Perez, his attorney, an interpreter, and another court officer went down to the lockup area. “Once inside the lockup area, the court officer used his security access card to open the rear sally-port exit of the courthouse and released the defendant out of the courthouse through the sally-port exit,” the press release said.

When questioned about Medina-Perez’s apparent escape from the courthouse, Judge Joseph allegedly replied: “I assumed that the defendant was in the custody of ICE. I was not aware until two days later when I returned to the Newton District Court that he had not been taken into ICE custody.”

She later added: “I regret the harm that my handling of the matter caused the reputation of the Massachusetts judiciary.”

‘This judge should never see another day in court as a judge. This type of reckless behavior doesn’t belong in our courtrooms.’

Judge Joseph was also charged with federal crimes and temporarily suspended from the bench in connection with the incident, but prosecutors later agreed to drop those charges when Joseph promised to refer herself to the Massachusetts Commission on Judicial Conduct.

Joseph returned to the bench and eventually moved to Boston Municipal Court, where she currently serves.

On Monday, the Commission on Judicial Conduct filed formal charges against Joseph, alleging that she had violated the Code of Judicial Conduct.

Furthermore, the commission alleged that her actions that day amounted to “willful judicial misconduct, conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice and unbecoming a judicial officer, and that brings the judicial office into disrepute.”

A hearing regarding these non-criminal charges will be held within the next 60 days after a hearing officer can be appointed to preside over it. Depending on the outcome of the hearing, Joseph could be removed from the bench.

In her rebuttal to the charges, which was also included in the press release, Joseph denied intentionally assisting Medina-Perez and professed to have “fully cooperated and responded truthfully to the inquiries of her judicial colleagues, supervisors, and judicial disciplinary authorities.” She did acknowledge that she “unknowingly” violated state statute when she paused the official court recording.

“Judge Joseph looks forward to a hearing where all the circumstances finally become public,” said a statement from her attorney, Thomas Hoopes, according to Boston.com.

Paul Craney of the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance called the entire situation “unfortunate.”

“It’s unfortunate this rogue judge decided to work against our law enforcement agency in charge of keeping the public safe. This judge should never see another day in court as a judge. This type of reckless behavior doesn’t belong in our courtrooms,” Craney said in a statement to Blaze News.

Medina-Perez apparently managed to evade ICE that day, but ICE apprehended him two weeks later. In December 2021, he was even “HELD WITHOUT BAIL DUE TO IDENTITY ISSUES,” a court docket showed. However, all charges against him in connection with this hearing were eventually dropped.

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