[ April 18, 2024 ]
After graduating from law school, Judge Shelley M. Richmond Joseph worked on the 1992 Clinton campaign, then worked a brief stint as legislative counsel for State Senator Marc Pacheco, a Taunton Democrat.
Mass. Judge Charged With Helping Man Evade ICE
Newton District Court Judge Shelley M. Richmond Joseph and Trial Court Officer Wesley MacGregor are charged with obstruction of justice
By Marc Fortier, Neon Nettle, Apr 25, 2019
A judge and a court officer have been accused of helping an undocumented immigrant evade an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.
Story continues below advertisementA Massachusetts judge and trial court officer were indicted Thursday on obstruction of justice charges for allegedly helping a man living in the U.S. illegally to evade a waiting immigration enforcement agent by sneaking out a back door.
The indictment, released Thursday, charges Newton District Court Judge Shelley M. Richmond Joseph and former Trial Court Officer Wesley MacGregor with obstruction of justice. MacGregor was also charged with perjury.
The indictment says Joseph and MacGregor helped an undocumented immigrant appearing in their courtroom from evading detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Both Joseph and MacGregor pleaded not guilty to charges at their appearance in Boston federal court.
According to court documents, the charges stem from a case in March 30, 2018, where Newton police charged undocument immigrant Jose Medina Perez with drug possession and being a fugitive from justice from Pennsylvania. Perez was arraigned on April 2 and allowed by MacGregor to leave out a back door after the hearing, evading an ICE officer who was waiting at court to take him into custody.
Perez was caught by immigration officials about a month after the hearing and is now in immigration proceedings.
“From certain corners I have heard the occasional gasp of dismay or outrage at the notion of holding a judge accountable for violating federal law,” Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling told reporters. “But if the law is not applied equally it cannot credibly be applied to anyone.”
Joseph, 51, has been a Massachusetts District Court judge since 2017. MacGregor, 56, had worked as a Massachusetts Trial Court Officer since 1993.
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court suspended Joseph without pay on Thursday after news of the indictment was made public.
“Abuses of power hurt us all,” said Peter Fitzhugh, special agent in charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations in Boston. “It undermines the core mission of government to serve the people. It has no place in a just and accountable society.”
After federal authorities opened an investigation into the matter, Gov. Charlie Baker said in December that he wanted Joseph suspended until the case was resolved.
Lizzy Guyton, Baker’s communications director, said in a statement Thursday the governor “believes no one should obstruct federal law enforcement officials trying to do their jobs and supports the Supreme Judicial Court’s decision to suspend Judge Joseph without pay. The Baker-Polito Administration has filed legislation to allow court officials as well as law-enforcement to work with federal immigration officials to detain dangerous individuals.”
Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey blasted the indictment, calling it a “radical and politically-motivated attack on our state and the independence of our courts.”
She said it is a “bedrock principle” of the constitutional system that “federal prosecutors should not recklessly interfere with the operation of state courts and their administration of justice.”
Healey said the matter could have been handled by the Commission on Judicial Conduct and the Trial Court.
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58 Comments
4 years ago
This is the end of your cozy career foolish woman. How proud you must be to put criminal aliens ahead of American citizens. Reap the whirlwind.
4 years ago
Reply to
dba_ unruly_ vagabond_trader
Agree. And the first Muslim democrat/socialist gay president imported 200,000 yearly legal and illegal muslims and deported christians back to ISIS to be slaughtered after they tried to make it to America http://tinyurl.com/mtc3xch
And those who dared to help were threatened to shut up and MSM would not cover it !
4 years ago
Reply to
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4 years ago
I think there might be quite a backlog of judges that need to be looked at.
4 years ago
Put those MTH in JAIL.
4 years ago
What a difference a President makes.
4 years ago
Some Judges think they are above the law and that corrupt prosecutors will protect them. This Judge guessed wrong. She will now lose a privileged position she didn’t deserve.
4 years ago
Reply to
8ball
Bet she only got the position because she is a female and politically connected to do DEM bidding.
4 years ago
Reply to
felix1999
She only got the position because she is well-practiced in the “missionary position”, you know, with the man on top.
4 years ago
Reply to
felix1999
In MA, bad lawyers give good $$ to the democRATS, and all of a sudden they are judges.
4 years ago
Federal trumps state on immigration and aiding an illegal and criminals. This is not a state rights issue.
They need to do this in California too!
4 years ago
I bet she’s a Catholic. They protect the illegals.
4 years ago
LOCK
HER
UP
SET AN EXAMPLE.
4 years ago
Next are the mayor’s and governor’s.
4 years ago
no more demonrat Kool-Aid in the Klink, just toilet home brew – and maybe a nice butch date to munch on
4 years ago
I find it fascinating that the woman isn’t cuffed. She’s simply strolling along. Why isn’t she “doin’ the frog walk”? Equal justice under the law.
4 years ago
Now there is a judge I would like to put a rope around the neck.
4 years ago
Guilt and shame written all over her face. Oh how in hope that ALL of the leftist traitors within and without the bureaucracy pay the price for their treason. BUT!! Anyone care to wager on her actually doing time?
4 years ago
Reply to
Michelle
MarxiCrats’ faces reveal NOTTHING. Perhaps her expression is due to a severe case of constipation,
4 years ago
What a pathetic leftist loser! These activist judges are treasonous!
4 years ago
When the judge is a criminal.
4 years ago
Reply to
Roma Mikhasev
Often,the only real criminals in the court room are the judge, prosecutor,and the lying FBI agent.
4 years ago
Back door justice is not justice. (sounds like a Hollywood movie scene) Too many USA judges seem either incompetent, self seeking or politically biased. Or all of the above.
She is not doubt an Obama appointee, bar her forever
4 years ago
It would seem that the two officials in this report believed in the idea of “rules are for thee but not for me”, what else can you think ?
When people start out on their chosen career as in this case, they are volunteers, so it must be remembered that what they believe personally is supposed not to effect the execution of their duties or colour their judgement.
This disease of “liberal personal values” trumping the obligations of office a person volunteers to serve in has been allowed and encouraged to replace established good practice to a quite unacceptable degree, and the remedy for this kind of virtue signalling illegal anarchy is a sentence upon conviction of five years with hard labour and no parole.
The message has to go out there loud and clear, if you don’t want the time, don’t do the crime.
4 years ago
To borrow the same line of argument, it is a “bedrock principle” of a constitutional republic that the state courts enforce the law instead of imposing personal prejudices against the federal enforcement authorities.
Ever heard of the “Supremacy Clause” of the Constitution?
In order for a commiecrat to become a judge, there is a test they have to flunk, example, Chief Justice Roberts declaring the travesty known as Obamacare a “tax”. Tax, my ass!
4 years ago
Vote for the Democrats and you will have the same! https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-04-23/san-franciscos-war-between-rich-and-homeless-boiling-point
4 years ago
She is the tip of a very large iceberg. The enemy of the US, Obuma, installed his ‘useful idiots’ in the judiciary to destroy America.
4 years ago
Marxists use drug wars to conquer; this rabit whole must go very deep for a judge to cover up a crime.
4 years ago
I’ve often wondered if the mayors, governors, cops who provide sanctuary cities and states are violating federal law and can likewise be charged with obstruction of justice? This is a very good omen the Trump Administration Is fighting back against these sanctuary cities. A few more indictments and arrests like this and we might actually see some relief.Also,what about federal judges,Obama judges, who obstruct the enforcement of federal immigration laws.Can they be similarly charged with obstruction of justice? I Think so.
4 years ago
Reply to
John Acord
I wondered the same thing. I didn’t understand why they didn’t arrest anyone of the people obstructing federal law. Immigration law not enforced goes beyond states rights. It affects the entire country. Maybe this is a test case? Under Obama, the swamp cooperated. Under Trump they do whatever they want. I didn’t see the need to leverage federal money – go for obstruction. I guess we’ll see…
4 years ago
She’s a LEFTY. They rule themselves by how they feel. They do not use logic or law to think.
4 years ago
Many of our institutions, in the arts, the academy, the media, and the courts have been corrupted by the insinuation into their ranks of mediocre hacks.
Here are two perfect examples – Shelley M. Richmond Joseph – a total mediocrity, a clueless woman appointed to the bench in 2017 through her Democrat party connections in the Peoples’ Republic of Massachusetts – and the endorsement of Barack Obama.
And then there is Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, a woman cut from the same cloth, who “blasted the indictment, calling it a “radical and politically-motivated attack on our state and the independence of our courts.”
As Ms. Joseph, in tears, departed from her own arraignment in federal court – undoubtedly astonished that she was actually to be held responsible for her arrogance, her stupidity, and her abuse of the justice system – attorney general Maura Healy trumpeted Democrat party talking points in attacking the federal authorities.
These are just the latest iterations of a phenomenon in American life I refer to as the Lois Lerner syndrome – which is also on display in Chicago, Baltimore, and in a host of other places to numerous to mention.
4 years ago
I remember when this was first reported a good while back maybe a year and a half. I thought then she should have been charged but I had no idea they were pursuing a Federal Grand Jury Indictment. I heard the audio tape by the court recorder before this crooked judge ordered it turned off which violates court rules in this instance. She deserves to go to prison and since it is a federal crime she will have to do 85% of her time. She did not care that the illegal had violated numerous laws and was a chronic substance abuser driving and may kill an innocent person. She just had to let her open border ideology replace the law. Suck it up!
4 years ago
OUR JUSTICE SYSTEM IS BIASED IN FAVOR OF ILLEGAL ALIENS! Personal anecdote:
When I was in my early 50’s and without my having any pre-existing condition, including any previous spinal injury, one horrible morning, as I was driving to work (I owned my own business at the time), I sustained a permanently-disabling spinal injury resulting in Neurogenic Pain Syndrome (aka Neuropathic Pain Syndrome) because of an illegal alien under deportation order AND driving a Yellow Cab. This cab driver ran a 4-way stop sign and rear-ended me @ 35 MPH.
Before you say, “The cab company is responsible,” think again. These cab drivers, most with few
assets and little insurance, are not covered by the cab company’s insurance.
I sued for the insurance amount that the cab driver had — and his insurance policy was for only $100,000 coverage. He was supposed to be carrying a policy of $300,000 coverage.
How did I fare in court? Not well!
Upon the pittance of a settlement (Think of a low amount, then think of a much lower amount), the officer of the court told me in words that will echo in my mind until I go to my grave:
“The sympathies of the court lie with the poor immigrant. If the situation were reversed, you’d be taken to the cleaners’.
NO JUSTICE FOR ME!
The so-called settlement I received didn’t begin to cover my out-of-pocket medical expenses. Those expenses — and this tormenting pain — still continue to this day. 24/7/365!
Meanwhile, for the past 14 years, the pain I have suffered since May 2005 is much akin to the nerve pain caused by shingles. Try living with THAT!
4 years ago
Reply to
Always On Watch
Sorry you went thru this, a situation that repeats itself over and over in our own country. Disgraceful
Take care.
4 years ago
Am I dreaming? This is really great. And it is NOT “a radical and politically-motivated attack on our state and the independence of our courts.” It is called LAW ENFORCEMENT, and if your quislings obstruct it they will be punished.
4 years ago
Good!
4 years ago
Another lefty before the Court and teach them you help the illegals in Sanctuary City you pay dearly. Give her the full 25 years and bar her from practising law.
4 years ago
The Democrats suddenly become the arbiters of State court action against Federal Laws interferring in State courts. .
Only when the State Judiciary has illegally violated Federal Law.
4 years ago
Suspended without pay! Finally, not sending them on a paid vacation for committing a crime. This has become a major problem in out “justice” system. Judges not following the law, but following their own personal agendas. Judicial activism has to stop. We know it never will, or will with great difficulty, because it is the only way liberals and progs can advance their agenda against the will of the people.
4 years ago
She’s probably a Christian, they help ‘illegals’.
4 years ago
What about the Mayor of Oakland, CA? She needs to get the same punishment for the same reasons.
4 years ago
But, but, but, surely my personal feelings outweigh the Law…
4 years ago
Outstanding! Click, click………..Slam……!!
4 years ago
I thought there was a “judge” in Kalifornia that basically did the same thing. Why has this JUSTICE OBSTRUCTING “judge” not been arrested and charged?
4 years ago
It seems to me there may very well be a whole bunch more of those types of activist judges here in CA and the 9th circuit who think they are a law unto temselves.
4 years ago
Another liberal abusing a position of power to destroy our country.
4 years ago
A Multnomah County Judge Allegedly Helped an Undocumented Immigrant Escape ICE Through Her Courtroom Door. Multnomah County court referee Monica Herranz is under internal review and the target of complaints from a federal prosecutor after allegedly helping the undocumented immigrant elude ICE last month by exiting the courtroom through an employee door.
Williams, ICE and the Department of Justice’s Office of Professional Responsibility in Washington, D.C., all ultimately agreed not to pursue a criminal investigation or a bar complaint against Herranz or anyone else who may have been involved.
This is crap.
4 years ago
So why have charges not been brought against the mayors, city council members and law enforcement officers who do the same thing in sanctuary cities?
