The Massachusetts judge accused of orchestrating a scheme with a defense attorney that allowed an illegal immigrant to evade federal authorities is slated to take the stand as the hearing stretches into its fourth day.
Judge Shelley Joseph will testify on Thursday about her role in the heated case, her defense attorneys announced at the end of the third day of testimony on Wednesday.
The state Commission on Judicial Conduct last year pressed civil charges against Joseph for misconduct allegations that stem from the controversial incident that unfolded at Newton District Court in April 2018.
Joseph allegedly “engaged in willful judicial misconduct that brought the judicial office into disrepute” by helping defendant Jose Medina-Perez, a Dominican national who had been deported twice previously, sneak out of the courthouse and avoid ICE agents waiting in the front lobby.
She is also charged with “conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice and unbecoming of a judicial officer.” Medina-Perez had been arrested four days before the hearing on April 2, 2018, for possessing narcotics and being a fugitive from justice in Pennsylvania.
A 52-second off-the-record conversation between Joseph and Medina-Perez’s defense attorney, David Jellinek, during a sidebar has been at the center of the hearing into the judge’s misconduct allegations this week.
Judith Fabricant, special counsel for the commission, paid special attention to that conversation on Wednesday, asking Joseph’s higher-ups about their knowledge of why the discussion wasn’t recorded – a violation of court procedures.
Fabricant argued earlier this week that Joseph signaled her approval for Jellinek’s desire for his client to avoid U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement when she appeared sympathetic during the secretive conversation.
Paul C. Dawley, the then-chief justice for Massachusetts District Courts, testified that he didn’t learn about Joseph going off the record until weeks later, on April 20, when he received an email from regional administrative assistant Stacy Fortes.
In a meeting over a month after the incident, Dawley said Joseph had admitted that she directed the clerk to shut the tape off as Medina-Perez’s defense attorney expressed concerns that the warrant out of Pennsylvania was for someone else, not his client.
“I remember specifically speaking to her that it was my experience that the most favorable piece of evidence is the tape itself,” Dawley said, “because people make accusations about failing to give due process, and then when you listen to the tape, you realize that that’s not accurate.”
Dawley argued that Joseph had told him she did not say anything about ICE during the exchange with the defense attorney. Joseph became a district court judge in November 2017.
“I viewed it as a training issue,” Dawley said of Joseph’s mistake. “If I viewed it as a (disciplinary matter), I would have had legal counsel with me. … The circumstances that I knew about didn’t warrant that.”
Medina-Perez’s prosecutor, Shannon McDermott, testified on Tuesday that she became concerned when Joseph and Jellinek moved to take the sidebar conversation off the record, recalling the discussion included a plan to help the illegal alien escape.
Joseph cleared Medina-Perez of the state charges and ordered him released on his own recognizance.
Mary Beth Heffernan, a first justice who oversaw all court personnel at the time in Newton, testified Wednesday that she was not at the courthouse on the date of the incident as she was at a funeral. She learned of the off-the-record conversation a day later.
Defense attorney Elizabeth Mulvey, who has said her client has been vilified in the media over the years, asked Heffernan whether she had “reprimanded” or “scolded” Joseph.
Heffernan responded, “I wish I had been in the courthouse on April 2. … This would not have happened. … They just would not have (let him out) had I been (there), whoever was involved.”
Mulvey said earlier this week that Joseph was unaware of a plan by Medina-Perez’s defense attorney to help him leave the court through a door normally used for transporting prisoners.
“What Judge Joseph was actually doing was trying to give David Jellinek more time to figure out if this was the guy [wanted by ICE],” the defense attorney said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
