Judge receives public reprimand for allegedly allowing illegal immigrant to escape ICE custody

The Supreme Judicial Court, the highest court in Massachusetts, issued a public reprimand Thursday against Judge Shelly Joseph, who was accused of allowing an illegal immigrant to escape the custody of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In 2018, Joseph was accused of colluding with the illegal immigrant's attorney and a court officer to allow him to escape out a back door of the courthouse following a hearing on charges including drug possession, the Associated Press reported. 

The Supreme Judicial Court's decision follows a recommendation for the reprimand by a hearing officer for the Commission on Judicial Conduct, which concluded that Joseph created the appearance of impropriety and failed to comply with the law. 

Joseph’s attorney, Elizabeth Mulvey, argued at the commission hearing last year that the case had been misrepresented over time to make it seem that her client "let an illegal immigrant out the door. This has, Mulvey said, half the public believing she should be incarcerated while the other half is calling her a "folk hero." 

In a statement, Mulvey described the case as a "baseless federal prosecution," which was actually "the world of the defense lawyer involved." 

Joseph and a court officer were charged in 2019 with obstruction of justice and suspended from judicial duties. Those charges were dropped in 2022 after she agreed to refer herself to the Commission on Judicial Misconduct. Joseph remains a judge, but she was assigned in December to administrative duties in the Boston Municipal Court, and that is where she will resume her judicial responsibilities.