Slowly, the tide seems to be turning. People who are complicit in helping illegal aliens escape detention and repatriation are finding out the hard way that the current administration and even some of the state authorities and courts, aren't playing anymore.
Case in point: Massachusetts Judge Shelley Joseph was officially rebuked for her actions in a 2018 case wherein an illegal alien escaped ICE custody. The illegal alien, one Jose Medina-Perez, left the courthouse by a rear exit while an ICE officer waited in the lobby to detain him.
The rebuke comes from the Supreme Judicial Court, the highest court in that state, and it's got to sting.
The highest court in Massachusetts has publicly rebuked a district court judge over her role in a case involving an illegal immigrant who evaded arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
For Judge Shelley Joseph, the decision brings to a close a legal saga that began on April 2, 2018, when Jose Medina-Perez left the Newton District Court through a rear courthouse exit all while an ICE officer was waiting in the lobby to take him into custody.
The Supreme Judicial Court's ruling centered on a sidebar with Medina-Perez's attorney and the prosecutor during which Joseph instructed her clerk to shut off the courtroom's recording system.
One would think a judge, of all people, would know better. The law is not a set of suggestions. One would presume a judge would take that a little more seriously than she takes her own woke sensibilities, especially when you consider that this judge acted deliberately in ordering her clerk to shut off the courtroom recorder. That's not an accident or an oversight. That's deliberate. That looks a lot like obstruction of justice.
The Supreme Judicial Court responded accordingly.
"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," according to the Thursday ruling from the Supreme Judicial Court.
Medina-Perez, mind you, was in Joseph's court to face fugitive-from-justice charges. Now, the Supreme Judicial Court also ruled that Judge Joseph was apparently unaware of the plan by Medina-Perez's attorney to assist his client in evading ICE. A year later, in 2019, Judge Joseph and the court officer who escorted Medina-Perez to the back door were indicted on charges of obstruction of justice. That case was dropped when Judge Joseph agreed to refer herself to the Massachusetts Commission on Judicial Conduct, resulting in this rebuke.
The commission concluded that 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."
After her federal indictment, Joseph was suspended from the bench and unable to work for three years.
Judge Joseph is once more working as a judge, but is now assigned to "administrative duties" in the Boston Municipal Court.
Actions have consequences. You would think a judge wouldn't have to learn this the hard way.
Editor’s Note: Democrat politicians and their radical supporters will do everything they can to interfere with and threaten ICE agents enforcing our immigration laws.
Help us hold these leftists accountable and expose their obstruction. Join RedState VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.
Join the Conversation
VIP members get the ability to comment on articles.