‘She knew nothing about it': Newton judge Shelley Joseph denies helping defendant evade ICE in 2018
Monday's hearing involves the latest chapter in a saga that stretches from President Trump's first term to his second, amid a renewed immigration crackdown that has sparked
As part of that agreement, Joseph admitted she knew that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were waiting to detain defendant Jose Medina-Perez, that she asked them to leave the courtroom, and that she had an off-the-record conversation with court parties that violated court rules. But she did not admit wrongdoing or deliberately helping Medina-Perez avoid ICE.
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Joseph's disciplinary case is being heard before Denis J. McInerny, a former deputy assistant attorney general with the Department of Justice, and the commission has appointed former Superior Court chief justice Judith Fabricant as special counsel to prosecute the case. McInerny will submit his findings to the Commission within 30 days of the hearing, and the Commission can then recommend discipline to the Supreme Judicial Court. Only the Legislature can remove a judge from the bench for misconduct.
The hearing began with a site visit to Newton District Court Monday morning. Proceedings resumed in Boston with the questioning of defense attorney David Jellinek, who acknowledged hatching the plan to help his client evade ICE. Fabricant accused Joseph of allowing an off-the-record conversation in violation of court rules, and accused her of lacking transparency when she later discussed the incident with senior judges.
'She did not volunteer information she should have volunteered,' Fabricant said.
The hearing is scheduled to resume Tuesday morning, with testimony from former Middlesex assistant district attorney Shannon McDermott, the prosecutor for Medina-Perez' case.
The controversy dates back to April 2018,
when Medina-Perez, a Dominican national who had been deported twice before, was in court to face charges for possessing drugs and for being a fugitive from justice. An ICE agent had shown up to the courthouse to detain him, and Joseph had him wait outside the courtroom, what she said was in accordance with policy set by Newton District Court's First Justice Mary Heffernan.
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Joseph and the prosecutor agree on a certain set of facts. On the day at issue, Medina-Perez had switched from a court appointed defender to Jellinek, a veteran private attorney who frequently practiced in Newton District Court. After a lunch break, Jellinek asked for a side bar conference, telling Joseph and McDermott that he was concerned ICE had misidentified his client and was going to detain him anyway. Jellinek then asked to go off-the-record, leading to a 52-second unrecorded conversation between himself, Joseph and the prosecutor.
McDermott agreed to drop the fugitive charge, and Joseph ordered Medina-Perez released without bail pending his next hearing on the drug counts. Instead of exiting through the front door, which would be typical, Jellinek and the court officer went downstairs with Medina-Perez and released him through a back door, which the waiting ICE agents did not discover until he had already left the building.
But what exactly was said during that 52-second gap in the tape recording remains under dispute. Jellinek, who was given immunity by federal prosecutors, told a grand jury he told Joseph of his plan to help Medina-Perez avoid capture, and that she agreed to it.
'My impression was she did also did not want ICE necessarily to pick up the wrong person,' Jellinek said at Monday's hearing.
But Joseph's attorneys argued that Jellinek had incentive to exaggerate the judge's knowledge to avoid facing federal charges himself.
Thomas Hoopes, one of Joseph's attorneys, described Jellinek's deal as a 'get-out-of-jail-free card.'
'Did anyone explain to you how rare it is for the mastermind of any crime — federally — to be immunized?' Hoopes said.
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'I never had that conversation,' Jellinek said.
Mulvey described Jellinek as the 'mastermind' of an 'ill conceived scheme,' saying Joseph was left in the dark about his true intentions.
'Nobody told her Medina Perez had gone out the back door,' Mulvey said. 'She knew nothing about it.'
Jellinek denied deceiving Joseph, and defended his behavior as legitimate advocacy for his client's interests. He said he asked to talk off-the-record because he knew helping Medina-Perez leave by the back door was 'right on the edge of acceptable or appropriate.'
'I was trying to protect everybody, but myself and the judge especially,' Jellinek said.
Joseph is not the only judge to face federal prosecution for allegedly helping a defendant evade ICE. Last month, a federal grand jury
Shelley Murphy can be reached at
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