A Boston judge, Shelley M. Richmond Joseph, is facing a civil misconduct hearing for allegedly helping an undocumented immigrant evade U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in 2018. The immigrant, Jose Medina-Perez, a Dominican national deported twice and barred from re-entry until 2027, was in Newton District Court on drug possession charges and a fugitive warrant. An ICE agent awaited his arrest at the courthouse, but Joseph is accused of assisting Medina-Perez in leaving undetected. During the hearing at Suffolk Superior Court in Boston, Judge Denis McInerney will review the evidence and issue recommendations. Joseph’s attorney stressed she has not been found guilty, highlighting the widespread public belief that she facilitated the immigrant’s escape. Federal prosecutors allege Joseph directed a court clerk to tell ICE agents to wait in the lobby and had the courtroom recorder turned off briefly before releasing Medina-Perez. She allegedly blocked ICE officers from entering the courtroom, allowing Medina-Perez to exit through a back door with the help of courthouse personnel.

The Justice Department dropped criminal charges against Joseph in 2022 after she referred herself to the Massachusetts Commission on Judicial Conduct (CJC). The CJC subsequently filed formal charges of “willful judicial misconduct” and conduct “prejudicial to the administration of justice.” Similar cases have arisen, with other judges charged with assisting undocumented immigrants to evade arrest, including Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan and New Mexico’s former magistrate judge Joel Cano and his wife. These cases highlight ongoing tensions between judicial discretion and federal immigration enforcement.