Massachusetts' Supreme Judicial Court issued a rare public reprimand to a sitting district judge over a 2018 courthouse escape in which an illegal immigrant slipped past ICE agents and out a back door.
Massachusetts' highest court handed down a rare public reprimand Thursday against a sitting district court judge over her role in a 2018 courthouse escape in which an illegal immigrant slipped past waiting federal agents and out a back door. The Supreme Judicial Court found that Judge Shelley Joseph created the appearance of impropriety and failed to comply with the law during a hearing that ended with the defendant walking free.
The decision closes an eight-year legal saga that has become a flashpoint in the wider fight between state courts and federal immigration enforcement. It also stands as a fresh warning to judges who allow their courtrooms to be used to frustrate lawful arrests.
The case began on April 2, 2018, at Newton District Court, where Jose Medina-Perez, a native of the Dominican Republic, was brought before Joseph to answer a fugitive-from-justice charge tied to an outstanding Pennsylvania warrant.
An ICE officer was waiting in the lobby to take Medina-Perez into custody. Joseph found there was not enough evidence to connect him to the Pennsylvania warrant, and prosecutor Shannon Jurgens recommended he be released without bail on the two drug charges he was facing.
Moments later, Medina-Perez was gone. He left the building through a rear sally port exit while the federal officer waited in the lobby for a defendant who would never reach him.
The Supreme Judicial Court zeroed in on a sidebar conference between Joseph, the defense attorney and the prosecutor. During that exchange, the court said, Joseph instructed her clerk to turn off the courtroom's audio recording system and floated the idea of holding Medina-Perez overnight in state custody.
"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," the court wrote.
The ruling did not end Joseph's career on the bench, and the court was careful to draw limits around her culpability.
Investigators determined that Joseph had no knowledge of a plan by defense attorney David Jellinek to have his client escorted to the courthouse lockup, where a court officer would then release him through the rear exit. The court found that Joseph neither explicitly nor implicitly signed off on that scheme.
The reprimand followed a recommendation from a hearing officer for the Commission on Judicial Conduct. That commission had concluded Joseph "engaged in willful judicial misconduct that brought the judicial office into disrepute, as well as conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice and unbecoming a judicial officer."
Federal prosecutors had already tried their hand. In April 2019, Joseph and the court officer who let Medina-Perez walk were indicted on obstruction of justice charges. Those charges were dropped in 2022 after Joseph agreed to refer herself to the state commission.
She was suspended from the bench and unable to work for more than three years. Joseph remains a judge and was assigned in December to administrative duties at the Boston Municipal Court, where she is expected to resume her judicial responsibilities.
Her attorney, Elizabeth Mulvey, said the long ordeal had finally reached a conclusion she described as vindication. Mulvey called the federal case a "baseless federal prosecution from the beginning and solely the work of the defense lawyer involved," and said Joseph "looks forward to rejoining her colleagues."
The Massachusetts case echoes a nearly identical confrontation in Wisconsin, where former Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan was convicted of felony obstruction for helping an illegal immigrant evade ICE agents. Dugan was fined $5,000 but spared prison time, and she resigned in January as Republican state lawmakers threatened impeachment.
Both episodes have unfolded against the backdrop of President Donald Trump's aggressive crackdown on illegal immigration, a push that has put his administration on a collision course with local judges, prosecutors and sanctuary jurisdictions that resist federal detainers.
Supporters of the enforcement drive argue the reprimand sends the right signal: courthouse doors should not become escape routes for criminal aliens, and the officials who run those courtrooms are not above the law.
Critics of the prosecutions say they chill judicial independence and turn routine bail decisions into federal crimes. The dueling reactions reflect a broader disagreement over who controls immigration enforcement inside a state courthouse.
Joseph returns to her duties with a public reprimand on her record -- a formal rebuke that stops short of removal but leaves a permanent mark.
The bigger question is whether the ruling changes behavior. Federal agents continue to make courthouse arrests, and state judges continue to weigh bail decisions that can determine whether a defendant ever reaches federal custody.
For now, the Massachusetts high court has drawn its line: a judge may not create the appearance of helping someone evade lawful federal authority. Whether that line holds will be tested in courtrooms across the country.
Massachusetts' Supreme Judicial Court issued a rare public reprimand to a sitting district judge over a 2018 courthouse escape in which an illegal immigrant slipped past ICE agents and out a back door.
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