Judge Busts Out Criminal Alien; Bay State Lawyers Blame ICE
After a Massachusetts judge and court officer helped a twice-deported criminal illegal alien escape custody, Bay State prosecutors are suing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to block ICE arrests at local courthouses.
“ICE’s policy is undermining the work of the justice system as a whole,” Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan said with apparent unintended irony.
Judge Shelley Joseph and court officer Wesley MacGregor were indicted on federal obstruction of justice charges for releasing a Dominican migrant last year. The man, identified only as A.S., was allowed to dash out of a rear entrance at the state courthouse in the sanctuary city of Newton after an ICE agent identified himself to the judge and other court personnel.
The New York Times called it “a dramatic turn in the long-running clash between the Trump administration and state governments that have resisted its hard-line approach to immigration.”
Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr was more blunt.
“PC bottom feeders claimJoseph was well within her rights to obstruct justice to free an illegalimmigrant drug dealer/drunken driver. If Judge Joseph really believed she wasoperating within the law, why did she order the courtroom tape recorder turnedoff before she cut [him] loose?” Carr wrote.
Thefederal indictment said the escape plan was hatched after the suspect’s lawyer toldJudge Joseph he thought the ICE officer in the courthouse was targeting thewrong person. “ICE is going to pick him up if he walks out the frontdoor,” the attorney said during a sidebar that was recorded.
Joseph responded: “ICE is gonna get him? What if we detainhim?”
The judge then directed that the courtroom recorder be turnedoff as the conversation continued. The recorder was turned back on 52 secondslater, at which point the prosecutor agreed with the defense lawyer that thereseemed to be a case of mistaken identity.
In the face of such shenanigans, Judge Joseph’s defenderscontend that ICE’s presence in courthouses is the real problem. “Prosecutors are forced to abandon casesbecause many victims and witnesses are deterred from appearing in court,” saysRyan, the Middlesex DA. “The policy also makes it more difficult to obtaindefendants’ appearance in court.”
As a matter of constitutionallaw, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ interest in prosecuting crimes issubordinate to federal immigration laws. A sitting judge with a law degree, abar certificate and a professional obligation to mete out justice should havebeen well aware of that fact.
The claim of mistakenidentity appears to have been conjured up by the defense attorney; a nationallaw enforcement database matched the fingerprints of “A.S.” with an individualdeported from the United States in 2003 and 2007, and banned from the countryuntil 2027.
Carr also noted that “A.S.”used at least 13 different identities. “Is identity theft now a crime only whencommitted by Americans?” he mused.
While “A.S.” remains at largethanks to Joseph’s miscarriage of justice, Her Honor pleaded not guilty and wassuspended without pay last week. If convicted,she could face up to 25 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
On hearing of the indictment, conservative pundit Michelle Malkin said it’shigh time sanctuary-style judges and jurisdictions are called to account. “Moreand faster, please,” she tweeted. It wouldalso appear to be time to start appointing judges who are actually capable ofexercising good judgment.