Photo: James Rojas/WBZ NewsRadio
NEWTON, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — Shelley Joseph, a Newton judge accused of helping an undocumented immigrant escape immigration authorities in 2018, goes before the Commission for Judicial Conduct for a hearing Monday.
The hearing began with a tour of Newton District Court, before resuming at the Suffolk County Courthouse. The commission says Joseph let the immigrant out using a courthouse back door while presiding over the case.
“We will go into the dock and follow the path that the defendant and those with him took,” said Judith Fabricant, special counsel for the commission.
Those who inspected the courthouse include attorney Denis McInerney, the hearing officer assigned to the case by the Supreme Judicial Court, and Joseph’s lawyer Thomas Hoopes.
Joseph was originally indicted on federal obstruction of justice charges in 2019, but the charges were dropped in 2022 when Joseph made an agreement with the U.S. attorney’s office, admitting to certain facts of the case and referring herself to the commission.
The commission says Joseph "has 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," according to State House News Service.
Joseph denies the allegations, with her lawyers writing she "has committed no misconduct, and certainly no willful judicial misconduct," according to SHNS. Instead, Joseph claims that the immigrant’s defense attorney "falsely implicated Judge Joseph in order to obtain immunity for himself.”
WBZ’s James Rojas (@JamesRojas.bsky.social) reports.