The highest court in Massachusetts has publicly rebuked a district court judge over her role in a case involving an illegal immigrant who evaded arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.For Judge Shelley Joseph, the decision brings to a close a legal saga that began on April 2, 2018, when Jose Medina-Perez left the Newton District Court through a rear courthouse exit all while an ICE officer was waiting in the lobby to take him into custody.The Supreme Judicial Court's ruling centered on a sidebar with Medina-Perez's attorney and the prosecutor during which Joseph instructed her clerk to shut off the courtroom's recording system."The respondent's statements during that conversation, including her proposal to detain Medina-Perez overnight in State custody, and her conduct in instructing the clerk to turn off the courtroom audio recording system, created an appearance of impropriety in violation of her duties," according to the Thursday ruling from the Supreme Judicial Court.District Court Judge Shelley M.Richmond Joseph leaves Federal Court in Boston, Massachusetts, on April 25, 2019, after she was indicted on obstruction of justice charges for preventing an ICE officer from taking custody of an undocumented defendant.
(Christopher Evans/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald via Getty Images)FORMER WISCONSIN JUDGE HANNAH DUGAN AVOIDS JAIL TIME FOR OBSTRUCTING ARREST OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTThe Supreme Judicial Court's reprimand came after a hearing officer for the Commission on Judicial Conduct recommended such an action.However, the high court ruled that Joseph was unaware Medina-Perez's attorney, David Jellinek, had devised a plan to help his client evade ICE by escorting him to the courthouse lockup, where the court officer would release him through a rear sally port exit.The court also found that Joseph neither explicitly nor implicitly approved of that plan.Medina-Perez, of the Dominican Republic, had been in Joseph's courtroom to be arraigned on a fugitive-from-just...