Choose Shelley Joseph says the truth that an unlawful immigrant had evaded federal authorities got here as a shock when she realized in regards to the slip-away two days after she presided over the defendant’s case.
The Massachusetts choose testified on the fourth day of her judicial misconduct listening to that she didn’t commit any wrongdoing when she launched Jose Medina-Perez, believing that the Dominican nationwide would “go right into ICE custody.”
Joseph’s protection workforce is slated to current its argument on Friday, placing Medina-Perez’s lawyer David Jellinek at fault for his shopper’s escape from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at Newton District Courtroom in April of 2018.
Joseph testified Thursday that she realized from First Justice Mary Beth Heffernan two days after she presided over Medina-Perez’s case that the defendant exited the again of the courthouse, avoiding being apprehended by ICE.
“That was the first I had heard of it,” Joseph informed her lawyer Elizabeth Mulvey. She recalled asking Heffernan, “How did that happen?”
Heffernan, who oversaw all courtroom personnel on the time in Newton, had informed Joseph, “That’s what I’m trying to find out,” the choose stated. Joseph’s annual wage is $207,855 as a Boston Municipal Courtroom Justice of the Peace.
Medina-Perez, deported twice beforehand, had been arrested on drug fees, whereas there was a warrant out of Pennsylvania for the defendant as a fugitive from justice.
Joseph, who grew to become a choose in November 2017, testified that she remembers requesting to proceed Medina-Perez’s case to the subsequent day, permitting Jellinek further time to analyze whether or not his shopper’s id matched the Pennsylvania warrant.
However Jellinek declined the request, and Joseph admitted that she didn’t make any try to carry the defendant over the lawyer’s objection and ordered Mineda Perez launched on recognizance.
“I figured he went into ICE custody, and that was the end of it,” Joseph stated Thursday.
Jellinek testified on Monday that he defined to Joseph throughout a 52-second off-the-record sidebar dialog – a dialogue that has been central to the prosecution’s argument – that he hoped to get his shopper out of the courthouse with out encountering ICE.
The lawyer stated he knew there was a door utilized by courtroom officers to just accept felony defendants, and he informed the choose he would use that again door, together with her permission.
“Did you think that meant (the defendant) was going out of the back door?” Mulvey requested Joseph. Her shopper responded, “Oh God, no.”
The state Fee on Judicial Conduct final yr pressed civil fees in opposition to Joseph for misconduct allegations that stem from the controversial incident that unfolded at Newton District Courtroom in April 2018.
Joseph is accused of participating in “willful judicial misconduct that brought the judicial office into disrepute” by allegedly serving to defendant Medina-Perez sneak out of the courthouse and keep away from ICE brokers ready within the entrance foyer.
She can be charged with “conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice and unbecoming of a judicial officer.”
Joseph testified that she knew an ICE agent had been ready within the courthouse foyer, with a civil detainer for Medina-Perez. She stated she assumed the defendant would have been detained within the constructing’s sallyport.
“I had no intent to help the defense attorney with his plan,” Joseph informed Judith Fabricant, particular counsel for the judicial conduct fee.
Fabricant pressed Joseph on why she went off the file for almost a minute throughout the sidebar dialog with Jellinek – a violation of courtroom process.
The prosecutor argued earlier this week that the choose signaled her approval of the lawyer’s request for his shopper to keep away from ICE when she appeared sympathetic throughout the secretive dialog.
“You knew that if you’re off the record, there’s no record, so there’s no public access,” Fabricant informed Joseph, which the choose agreed with.
Joseph argued that the off-the-record sidebar centered on the Medina-Perez case and nothing else, with the dialogue “clearly a continuation of the on-the-record conversation.”
“There’s nothing of substance that was any different,” Joseph stated.
The feds had initially charged Joseph with perjury and obstructing justice. The Biden administration dismissed these offenses in 2022 as a part of an settlement with Joseph, which included circumstances requiring her to undergo the scrutiny of the Fee for Judicial Conduct.
The feds had alleged that Joseph was answerable for getting in the best way of ICE brokers who have been making an attempt to execute an order for Medina-Perez’s elimination.
“ICE was not my concern,” Joseph stated Thursday.
