Massachusetts District Court Judge Shelley Joseph is under investigation after she was accused of helping an undocumented immigrant, Jose Medina-Perez, evade an ICE officer at the courthouse. The Boston Globe is reporting that a federal grand jury is investigating Joseph and some have called for her to be barred from handling criminal cases in the interim.
Medina-Perez was arrested by Newton police on drug charges and faced a fugitive warrant for drunken driving in Pennsylvania and a detainer from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE was at the courthouse to execute the detainer and the defense counsel David Jellinek is heard on an audiotape saying “ICE will pick him up if he walks out the front door.” Joseph reportedly told his counsel “ICE is going to get him.” She then suggested “What if we continue [the case]?” and then instructed a clerk to turn off the courtroom’s audio recorder.
All such proceeding must be recorded and the order to turn off the recorder is not just a violation of that rule but shows a level of premeditation on her part to assist in the effort to evade ICE. Medina-Perez left through a back door, “scaled a fence and took off, leaving the immigration agent behind.”
Baker nominated Joseph in 2017. A criminal defense lawyer who specialized in Registry of Motor Vehicle hearings and restraining orders, she also worked as an assistant attorney general from 1993 to 2000.
Joseph actively assisted in the evasion of ICE and her action can be viewed as obstruction of justice. At a minimum, her actions appear to violate core judicial ethical principles.
Joseph was appointed to the bench in 2017. After a stint as a prosecutor, she worked her husband, Scott Joseph at their law firm Joseph & Joseph. She specialized in “criminal defense, hearings before the registry of motor vehicles, and restraining orders.” She has a bachelor’s degree in political science from Boston College with a concentration in Spanish and a law degree from the New England School of Law.
ICE is disruptive and intrusive in the courthouse. ICE should not be permitted to make arrests in a courtroom; that is neither the time nor place. Coming or going from the courthouse is fair game; inside is not. I spent a long time in courtrooms, but I have not witnessed LE making arrests therein. Let’s not turn everything into a zoo.
Yeah, the best way to stop it from becoming a zoo is to prohibit the keepers from capturing the animals. ICE are fed cops; fed cops are part of the justice system; the justice system extends to the courthouses of the several states.
Mespo,
As matter of “fairness and good sportmanship”, ICE should be required to chase them down after they leave the courtroom…..😀😄😂
“The courtroom is no place” to enforce the law.
Have you learned nothing in your years as a lawyer?😉
True enough. I think the courtroom bailiffs should post “No Hunting” signs on every wall.
🙂
( Chuck Aspinwall says: I spent a long time in courtrooms,)
What were all the crimes you were charged with & how time did you get? Thanks
REPUBLICANS ARE SELECTIVE..
REGARDING “LOCAL GOVERNMENT KNOWS BEST”
When the issue pertains to industrial regulations, Republicans are fond of saying, “Local government knows best”. That saying, in fact, was a mainstay of Reagan stump speeches in 1980. The idea was that Washington bureaucrats were ham-fisted and Indifferent to the concerns of businessmen.
It’s no secret that Republicans would like to dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency. Republicans contend that state and local governments would actually be more effective at regulating the environment. In truth, so-called ‘businessmen’ would be more effective at controlling local regulators. Big corporations have more muscle at state capitals than they do in Washington.
But when it comes to criminal justice, issues like Sanctuary Cities and Legal Marijuana, Republicans are dead-set against against local autonomy. Because local governments in Blue States cannot be counted on to uphold hardline Republican policies. When it comes to criminal justice, Republicans are surprisingly partial to ham-fisted bureaucrats in Washington.
Conspiracy and obstruction of justice. Where is Mueller when you really need him?
Mueller and his team spend most of their time insuring 75 year old FOT (friends of Trump) go to prison for forgetting a minor 6 year old incident, while simultaneously insuring every known DNC felon/perjurer (Hillary, Comey, McCabe, Clapper, Brennan, Bruce and Mrs. Ohr, Steele, etc.) gets clean away.
Then there’s always Obama’s AG Eric Holder and his two lieutenants, who orchestrated the bloodless coup of the DOJ, authoring lies to clear Jamie Dimon and Goldman Sachs of bank felonies that caused the 2008 depression and trillions of $ in debt and interest hung around taxpayer’s necks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHgbRYgpGGs
authoring lies to clear Jamie Dimon and Goldman Sachs of bank felonies that caused the 2008 depression and trillions of $ in debt and interest hung around taxpayer’s necks
This is a complete fantasy.
Trapping decorated soldiers in perjury charges, of course.
Paul C Schulte says: December 5, 2018 at 11:29 AM
“Conspiracy and obstruction of justice. Where is Mueller when you really need him?”
Where have you been? I demand a citation for your whereabouts for the latter part of January, all of February and March and most of April.
D’oh! December 5, 2018 at 11:29 AM D’oh!
I think the judge might have committed a crime here. If she indeed assisted the WOP from escaping from the cops by telling him (through the lawyer) how to escape then that seems to be a crime. “Go out my back door” would be an assist. Now. If in the future this WOP commits another crime then the victims should sue the WOP and his judge pal as co defendants in a civil case. She is a co conspirator. Since she is a “state actor” then she and her co defendant can be sued under the civil rights act in federal court. 43 U.S.C. Section 1983 and Section 1985.
It was stated on another blog that one of the ICE agents asked a clerk: “Where da WOP at?”
wop without papers or undocumented term for italian immigrants to USA and in later years the italian helicopter.
BLM Bureau of Land Management
gyp or jip gypsys
yap or young asian professionals a gangster term.
NiPs or Nansen Passport – Nansen passports, originally and officially stateless persons passports, were internationally recognized refugee travel documents from 1922 to 1938, first issued by the League of Nations to stateless refugees.
(Now referred to as a Brownie Card or Brownie Points if entering thorugh California – I just made that one up.)
kike for jewish immigrants was the name of he star of david symbol
negro not used in the USA except by spanish speakers south of the border it means in proper spanish the color black but for a slur they use a shade of brown maroon.
85 million came through ellis island alone. but the rules were different then.
Gringo from a song the emigrants from the USA immigrating to Mexico sang Green Grows The Rushes and also the green uniforms some US units wore.
Norske also Blockheads or square heads also Uftas.
Anf from a book A Boys Life On the Prairies (western minnesota and South Dakota in the late 1800’s unpubished but in the minnesota historical collections and also from the Red Lake Reservation Sioux is a bad word used by Ojibwa and Chippewa a bad work used by sioux (Lakotas) can’t verify that one.
If you are “an undocumented alien” then yoiu are “With Out Papers” or a WOP.
If you also have criminal charges against you then you are “a friggin WOP”. I am not referring to Italians only here.
Ah, the New England School of Law, that oracle of legal ideology with a 70% acceptance rate. This is the low bar we set for federal judges these days.
Methinks this isn’t a case of a liberal judge helping a criminalien evade the law on anti-Trump principle. Methinks rather Mr. Jose Medina-Perez aka Señor Oscar Manuel Peguero may have been slipping Judge Judy, er ah, Judge Joseph the Mexican salami in her (bed)chambers.
¡Possible(mente)! 🙂 Salchicha I believe is more correct, salami being, well, so Italian. Pace! ¡Paz! Peace, everyone.
Not federal. Nice reading comprehension.
Knowing that this illegal immigrant defendant was wanted for drunk driving and will probably reoffend, the question for Judge Joseph is why she would let this guy get away and expose the average citizens to increased risk? Some thoughts are blocking her presumed commitment to public safety. She seems to placing his welfare on a pedestal above that of the citizenry. Why?
With a law degree comes an ego. With a judgeship, comes a god complex. The judicial system should sanction this judge, at least remove her from the bench and disbar her.
you are right there are state mechanisms for judicial discipline which are not surprisingly handled by the judiciary. she is certain to be sanctioned in some way.
disbarment or removal of a lawyer’s license is a different proceeding and a different matter entirely. in theory something could impact both a judicial appointment and a license, maybe even these facts could, but I doubt this would reach her law license
It’s more a smear on her record as a judge. lawyers are constantly faced with giving legal advice about matters of dubious legality and it is impracticable to sanction them for telling people what the law is; and if you turn lawyers into state mandated squealers– then a person’s right to counsel is effectively nullified by the state. so the law license is a different thing.
Regarding the legal structure, I am short on knowledge and not familiar with the protocol you referenced. However, as a citizen, to whom the government and legal system is beholding and to which, in return, I am obligated, this person, judge, lawyer, whatever, has placed herself above the law. She is not only, as I am, beholding to the law and society, but, much more than that, a guardian of the law and through that the society. Unless she is dealt with severely, she will reinforce precedents of judicial over reach and personal interpretation of the law by those very persons who are there to prevent this. Sack her a**, remove her from the legal system for the primary reason for which miscreants are punished, to illustrate what happen when….
Furthermore, Medina-Perez is the very sort that Obama was targeting and deporting, the sort that should be deported. Unlike Trump’s mindless round ups of hard working lawful sorts, a sort with an outstanding warrant and on drug charges is the candidate for ICE. This judge seems to have acted in defiance of Trump’s policies and on the side of potential candidates for staying and working in the US. Through her actions she contributes as a reinforcement to Trump’s activities and works against those who may deserve to stay. She loses on all counts.
You’ve got a serious split-personality disorder. One of your personalities will periodically use reason and logic to arrive at comments like:
Unless she is dealt with severely, she will reinforce precedents of judicial over reach and personal interpretation of the law by those very persons who are there to prevent this.
And then the other personality, the more dominant of the two, goes all Joy Behar on the other, and before you know it makes comments like this:
Medina-Perez is the very sort that Obama was targeting and deporting, the sort that should be deported. Unlike Trump’s mindless round ups of hard working lawful sorts,
You said in a later comment that With a law degree comes an ego. You are proof positive that one does not need a law degree to have an ego.
Olly
You read into anything whatever you need to suit yourself, regardless of the facts: Obama did target and deport a million plus of Medina-Perez’s type, and Trump is deporting those who have been successful contributors, not breaking any laws, raising families, those that Obama put on hold. A judge whose role is to administer the law and protect society that determines what the law is on a whim, is in violation of that very trust. Nothing split here. Under Obama Medina-Perez would have ended up before a judge and probably deported. The judge was making a personal statement, ignoring the law, and therefore violating her position. As far as having two divergent opinions in the same head, I believe that is a compliment. It would behoove Americans to follow suit. To think for one’s self is a difficult responsibility. You should not shirk from this.
Trump is deporting those who have been successful contributors, not breaking any laws, raising families, those that Obama put on hold. A judge whose role is to administer the law and protect society that determines what the law is on a whim, is in violation of that very trust.
However they are in the country illegally, so yes, they are breaking laws. Would you consider someone that broke into your home as acceptable if once inside they behaved like the rest of the family? If the President signed an executive order that said the person that broke into your home is allowed to stay there (as long as they behaved themselves) until other arrangements are made, would you consider that a violation of that very trust you speak of?
Hold on there isaac. True that Obama deported a lot. And true that the current polices are not ideal. But dont put it all on Trump. he does not pick the cases. it was JEFF SESSIONS who decided to up the ante on deporting registered aliens with minor paperwork problems such as perfectly healthy and modestly employed asylees who are on state medicaid programs
and it was the Obama administration that encouraged a lot of aliens such as asylee applicants, to automatically sign up en masse for such state programs, how unfair is it that they are now targeted for deportation just because they did what the Obama cadres told them to do!
https://www.kff.org/disparities-policy/fact-sheet/proposed-changes-to-public-charge-policies-for-immigrants-implications-for-health-coverage/
What they do not say in any of these articles is that the impact of this policy falls squarely on Asian immigrant asylees from various countries which have been encouraged to immigrate here for decades by official US government programs and policies, and yet the teeming hordes of Latin American migrants who are EWIs that is illegal aliens, could care less!
So, as the law abiding Asian migrants now face a massive wave of deportations for paperwork flaws, 11 MILLION OR SO LATINO ILLEGALS WHO NEVER DARKENED THE DOOR OF ICE ARE STILL OUT THERE DOING WHATEVER THEY LIKE~!
it’s about like gun registration. criminals never register their guns; and could care less about laws; but lawful citizens who do are subjecting themselves mostly just to future gun confiscation.,
so your law abiding types of legit asylees and so forth who signed up for these programs as the obama social workers told them too, who may be perfectly healthy and thus not actually a drag on the medicaid pools, are now getting the deportation hammer
Sessions really was incompetent and the DOJ is still filled with saboteurs!
And as usual, Hispanics get endless pandering, blacks are uncriticizable, but white people and Asians get the shaft because they don’t complain! How fair is this. NOT!
And we wonder why there is widespread contempt for the law! Impeach this judge now!
Good news
Jailing is too kind for a great many federal judges.
Not a federal judge. I weep for our lack of basic civics knowledge.
It says in the post ‘district judge’. If they use the same terminology in Massachusetts state courts, that’s terminological confusion, not ‘lack of basic civics knowledge’ you posturing ass.
Also says the judge was appointed by the governor. Know a lot of federal judges that get appointed that way?