"In 2018, Massachusetts state District Court Judge Shelley Joseph and a court officer were accused of helping an undocumented migrant sneak out of the Newton District Court in Newton, Massachusetts, before an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer could detain him. The man was arres…
"In 2018, Massachusetts state District Court Judge Shelley Joseph and a court officer were accused of helping an undocumented migrant sneak out of the Newton District Court in Newton, Massachusetts, before an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer could detain him. The man was arrested on narcotics charges and had been deported from the U.S. twice, prosecutors said at the time.
Joseph was later indicted by federal prosecutors on charges of conspiracy to obstruct justice and obstruction of justice and pleaded not guilty.
At the time Joseph was charged, then-state Attorney General Maura Healey, now the Democratic governor of Massachusetts, claimed it represented “a radical and politically motivated attack on our state and the independence of our courts.”
Joseph’s attorney at the time, Thomas Hoopes, accused then-U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Andrew Lelling of “political bias” in court documents — pointing to a Boston Herald op-ed he authored — and accusing him of leaking confidential information to the media.
Unlike the case Friday, however, Joseph surrendered to authorities. And federal prosecutors eventually dropped the charges against her in 2022. Joseph was instead referred to the Massachusetts Commission on Judicial Conduct, a state agency charged with investigating allegations of misconduct among those admitted to the bench."
Late last year, the commission filed formal charges against Joseph with the state’s highest court, a surprisingly forceful step for a body that has only gone so far five other times since 2000.
There was a case like this in Boston.
From Politico:
"In 2018, Massachusetts state District Court Judge Shelley Joseph and a court officer were accused of helping an undocumented migrant sneak out of the Newton District Court in Newton, Massachusetts, before an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer could detain him. The man was arrested on narcotics charges and had been deported from the U.S. twice, prosecutors said at the time.
Joseph was later indicted by federal prosecutors on charges of conspiracy to obstruct justice and obstruction of justice and pleaded not guilty.
At the time Joseph was charged, then-state Attorney General Maura Healey, now the Democratic governor of Massachusetts, claimed it represented “a radical and politically motivated attack on our state and the independence of our courts.”
Joseph’s attorney at the time, Thomas Hoopes, accused then-U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Andrew Lelling of “political bias” in court documents — pointing to a Boston Herald op-ed he authored — and accusing him of leaking confidential information to the media.
Unlike the case Friday, however, Joseph surrendered to authorities. And federal prosecutors eventually dropped the charges against her in 2022. Joseph was instead referred to the Massachusetts Commission on Judicial Conduct, a state agency charged with investigating allegations of misconduct among those admitted to the bench."
Late last year, the commission filed formal charges against Joseph with the state’s highest court, a surprisingly forceful step for a body that has only gone so far five other times since 2000.