A Boston judge who allegedly helped an illegal immigrant avoid US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and escape from a courthouse is now facing a misconduct hearing.
Judge Shelley M. Richmond Joseph of the Newton District Court is accused of allowing Jose Medina-Perez, a Dominican national who was previously deported and barred from reentering the US until 2027, to slip out a rear courthouse exit to avoid arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
Medina-Perez had appeared in court on drug possession charges and an outstanding fugitive warrant from Pennsylvania. An ICE agent was reportedly waiting in the courthouse lobby to take him into custody.
According to prosecutors, Judge Joseph instructed a court clerk to inform the ICE agent to wait in the lobby, telling the agent that Medina-Perez would be leaving through the front entrance. She then allegedly ordered the courtroom clerk to “go off the record for a moment,” and the courtroom recorder was turned off for 52 seconds. When recording resumed, Joseph reportedly announced that the defendant would be released, and when his attorney asked to speak with him downstairs, she responded, “that’s fine. Of course.”
A clerk then reminded Joseph that an ICE officer was present, to which she allegedly replied, “That’s fine. I’m not gonna allow them to come in here. But he’s been released on this.”
Prosecutors say a trial court officer subsequently escorted Medina-Perez, along with his attorney and interpreter, downstairs and used a security access card to let them exit through a rear door, evading the ICE agent entirely.
According to Fox News, Joseph’s attorney emphasized during the hearing that she has not been convicted of any crime.
“If you were to walk down the street and take a survey of the people you meet, 100% of them would tell you Judge Joseph let an illegal immigrant out the back door of the district court,” Joseph’s counsel said in an opening statement. “Fifty percent of them would tell you that she’s a criminal, and she should go to jail. Fifty percent would tell you she’s a folk hero for what she gave. But 100% would tell you she did it. It has become such a part of local lore in Boston that the media, for the most part, have dropped the niceties of alleged or charged, and they report and make references to this incident as if a dozen people had seen Judge Joseph get off the bench, escorted the defendant to the door, gave him a hug and wished him Godspeed.”
Joseph’s case has drawn renewed attention in light of a similar incident last April in Wisconsin, where Judge Hannah Dugan was arrested by the FBI and charged after allegedly helping an illegal immigrant avoid ICE detention at a courthouse.
