Newton District Court Judge Shelley Joseph and court officer Wesley MacGregor were both charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice, obstruction of justice, obstruction of a federal proceeding and perjury for an incident on April 2, 2018 - in an indictment today by a federal grand jury that has been investigating them for nearly a year.
At issue, according to the indictment, is a man arrested in Newton on March 30 on drug charges and as a fugitive from justices from Pennsylvania. Newton Police sent his fingerprints to a national database, where an ICE agent noticed them and submitted a "detainer" to have the man held for possible deportation because he had already been deported from the US in 2003 and 2007.
According to the affidavit, a plainclothes ICE agent went to Newton District Court and alerted court officers, an assistant Middlesex County DA and the man's lawyer that he was there to take the man into federal custody, before taking a seat in Joseph's courtroom. After letting the agent cool his heels for several hours - and at one point having her clerk order him out of the courtroom to wait in the court lobby, the indictment alleges, Joseph had MacGregor take the man's lawyer - who maintained his client was not the guy wanted in Pennsylvania - down to the man in a basement lockup, where MacGregor then opened a rear door and let the man and his lawyer out, evading ICE detention.
Part of the conspiracy charge involves Joseph turning off a courtroom recording device for 51 seconds during a sidebar discussion with the lawyer - who was not charged in the indictment. Federal prosecutors say this is when Joseph and the lawyer figured out how to get the man out of the courthouse.
The feds also charge that Joseph then lied about what happened during a meeting with other district-court judges by allegedly lying that the machine went off because of her unfamiliarity with the equipment. MacGregor is charged with lying to the grand jury last July when testifying about how he let the man out of the court; prosecutors allege he falsely claimed that he didn't know the man was wanted by ICE or that there was an ICE agent in the courthouse.
Joseph, 51, of Natick, and MacGregor, 56, of Watertown, could face up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted, the US Attorney's office reports.
In a statement, US Attorney Lelling Andrew Lelling said:
This case is about the rule of law. The allegations in today’s indictment involve obstruction by a sitting judge, that is intentional interference with the enforcement of federal law, and that is a crime. We cannot pick and choose the federal laws we follow, or use our personal views to justify violating the law. Everyone in the justice system - not just judges, but law enforcement officers, prosecutors, and defense counsel - should be held to a higher standard. The people of Massachusetts expect that, just like they expect judges to be fair, impartial and to follow the law themselves.
Matt Cameron, an immigration lawyer in East Boston, retorts:
There are no words for my fury. THIS, only 1 wk after the #MuellerReport, is where the DOJ draws the line on obstruction?
I stand with Judge Joseph & challenge anyone who claims to care about federalism, states' rights, & "limited government," to join me
In short, Judge Joseph:
1) Had serious concerns about whether ICE was about to detain the right guy
2) Exercised authority as a trial judge charged w/preserving order & dignity in the court to instruct a court officer to escort the defendant off the premises
Innocent, etc.
The indictment (1.7M PDF).
Like the job UHub is doing? Consider a contribution. Thanks!
Ad:
Comments
Hopefully the feds don’t stop
By Murkin
Thu, 04/25/2019 - 1:19pm
Hopefully the feds don’t stop with these two criminals.
Or maybe...
By ChrisC
Sat, 04/27/2019 - 10:16am
...they can get their day in court. Fascist mouth-foamers like you haven't completely destroyed the constitution and due process yet.
Yes
By capecoddah
Sat, 04/27/2019 - 10:27am
Excellent plan. That was always a great thing until they stopped prosecuting crime.
You do know, the old sneak-em-out-the-back-door thing is no longer a viable option. Sheriff Trump done laid down the law.
Ok, cool...
By ChrisC
Sat, 04/27/2019 - 11:29am
Glad you see him as "Sheriff Trump". And I'm glad you apparently think it's ok to just presume people are guilty before they have a fair trial. Or maybe you're being sarcastic. It's hard to tell these days since your response was pretty spot on for the adult babies who call themselves Trump supporters.
Absolutely
By capecoddah
Sat, 04/27/2019 - 3:31pm
Absolutely. I am not the government. Sometimes people mistake me for one, but I don't know why they don't mistake me for one of those bad governments that are not really into innocent-until.
I am thankful to live in a country where even dumbass criminals get their day in court. I would not have the patience to run a country like that day in and day out.
Hopefully the first of many local judges to be indicted
By O-FISH-L
Thu, 04/25/2019 - 1:34pm
This is great news. A MA judge helping a twice deported illegal alien, facing new cocaine charges, to literally go out the back door while an ICE agent with a lawful detainer was sent the other way to the lobby. It's great to see President Trump's feds stepping in to prosecute state corruption while our own MA AG Maura Healey is busy with her latest lawsuit against our President. Hopefully it's the first of many MA judges to be indicted since this is the rule not the exception in our Deval and Tall Deval infested courts. The state legislature has the power to remove judges but has failed to do so even in the most extreme circumstances. At least the feds are now stepping in. #MAGA
ICE has been pretty underhanded themselves
By registeredUser
Thu, 04/25/2019 - 2:26pm
We should reprimand them for going after courthouse appearances. It is pretty underhanded what ICE has been doing to detain people for complying with laws.
ICE only detains people for
By anon
Thu, 04/25/2019 - 4:44pm
ICE only detains people for as long as it takes to safely return them home. If an ICE detention lasts longer than a week, it's usually because the person is objecting to being returned home.
So the kids kept in cages for several weeks
By Daan
Thu, 04/25/2019 - 8:48pm
didn't exist?
That’s a different agency
By Waquiot
Thu, 04/25/2019 - 9:06pm
That’s CBP. CBP handles issues at the border (that’s what the B stands for) while ICE is involved with immigration enforcement beyond immediate border issues, along with some customs issues (the I, E, and C in ICE)
"Home"
By lbb
Fri, 04/26/2019 - 9:39am
How do you define "home"? I grew up in a city that I haven't lived in for decades. Is that "home"? If you were brought here by your parents at the age of two and you were deported to your country of birth, would that be "home"?
It doesn't matter to folks like this...
By ChrisC
Sat, 04/27/2019 - 10:18am
To Trump supporters, it's just some "other" place where brown people live...or something. It's just not Here, where freedom lives and stuff.
Oh now you care about the rule of law
By Parkwayne
Thu, 04/25/2019 - 2:56pm
Not when it concerns corruption or sexual assault or national security?
What a simpering little fascist you are and someone who truly hates life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
#MAGA? How? Explain to me
By anon
Thu, 04/25/2019 - 4:02pm
#MAGA? How? Explain to me how the current administration has made America great again? And please explain to me exactly when and why America was great. This is a serious request. I'll start below... everybody...please join in!
Was it when:
America was all for slaves?
When slave owners raped their slaves?
When slave owners had children due to their raping and made them slaves too?
When we were lynching POC (let's not forget it's in the not so distant past)?
When when women were treated as property?
When women couldn't own credit cards on their own?
When women died getting back ally abortions?
When women weren't allowed in the workplace?
When there were no environmental standards and corporations were (and are back to) ruining the planet?
When there was child labor?
When you had no rights as worker?
When POC couldn't vote?
When women couldn't vote?
It was pretty great from post
By Murphquake
Thu, 04/25/2019 - 6:22pm
It was pretty great from post WWII until the mid aughts.
Great for one group
By Anon
Fri, 04/26/2019 - 5:30am
one race and one gender in this country post WWII really nobody else
You're so right
By bosguy22
Fri, 04/26/2019 - 8:10am
Only one gender and race has been successful in the United States.
Give me a break.
No one is saying that...
By ChrisC
Sat, 04/27/2019 - 11:47am
The fact is that racism and sexism are ingrained in this country's history and played a huge part in shaping it throughout the centuries. But, you right wingers want to bury that, and pretend that it never happened.
For white men yes it was.
By anon
Fri, 04/26/2019 - 1:33pm
For white men yes it was. That is why Trump is president. White people are scared of being treated like they've treated everyone else for centuries. It's nothing but that. The guy and his family were racist shitbag grifters long before he threw his hat in the ring. The people voting for him knew that...he was their white savior.
MAGA
By cybah
Thu, 04/25/2019 - 9:20pm
The only people who think America is Great Again are the swamp President Cheeto has filled our gov't up with who only look to gain from fleecing the tax payers.
Everyone else can go to hell apparently and lap this MAGAshit up like a dog at a water bowl.
What’s good for the goose
By anon
Thu, 04/25/2019 - 4:29pm
Applies to The Don. Trump’s taxes were legally demanded. He refuse to comply with the law. Trump seeks to persecute a state judge who refuses to kowtow to him while violating the law himself.
It will be a refreshing day when Don the psuedo-Mafia Don acts as though he is subject to law, instead of acting as a king that law can not touch.
We got rid of a king over 2 centuries ago. We will not have a new one.
What would that be called?
By ChrisC
Sat, 04/27/2019 - 11:40am
Maybe...a "witch hunt"? Isn't that a favorite go-to line for your Dear Leader?
Good for her!
By anon
Thu, 04/25/2019 - 1:39pm
Abolish ICE
I don't see you spending down your savings
By Roman
Fri, 04/26/2019 - 6:38pm
on plane tickets for any and every third worlder to come here and stay at your place.
What I do see, however, is you typing out slogans someone else has placed into your head and believing that you're a better human being for having performed your parrot act.
this might be hard for you to understand but...
By anon
Sat, 04/27/2019 - 1:05pm
unlike yourself, not everyone is incapable of independent thought. And yes, being against ICE does make one a better human being, though based on your posting history you're a low bar to clear.
Politics aside, this is a
By anon
Thu, 04/25/2019 - 1:40pm
Politics aside, this is a pretty wild abuse of power by both the suspects.
States rights anyone?
By anon
Thu, 04/25/2019 - 3:34pm
The Federal govt is not only having the State & municipal govts do their work for them and for free! Regardless of how you feel about the individual detainees, this is bigger than that and a dangerous precedent. Literally the Constitution is involved here. I'm all for have ICE do their own damn job (and being disbanded - it's been outside the Constitution in a lot of matters with their Gestapo like behavior).
Immigration from foreign
By anon
Thu, 04/25/2019 - 4:33pm
Immigration from foreign countries is not a States rights issue. It's a Federal issue
Literally the Constitution is involved here
By Waquiot
Thu, 04/25/2019 - 6:52pm
(Read Article IV)
What was she thinking?
By StillFromDorchester
Thu, 04/25/2019 - 2:33pm
I dont understand people who bend over backwards for people who break immigration laws.
The fact that she is a Judge is even more troubling.
do you mean
By anon
Thu, 04/25/2019 - 2:23pm
like how Melania Trump's immigration was dubiously fast-tracked?
No that's not what I mean.
By StillFromDorchester
Thu, 04/25/2019 - 3:08pm
I Mean what I wrote...
Dont drag the orange ones wife into it.
Trumpland Trumpland Uber Alles
By Old Groucho
Thu, 04/25/2019 - 2:25pm
When Federal Judges are performing defiant acts of civil disobedience in order to protect human life from Dear Leader's squad of sadist police academy washouts you just know this place is done for.
30% of our population controls our government from sparsely populated states, our elections are compromised and the gop is cool with it, and it seems anyone with the power to put the reins on the Orange One (looking at you, turtleman) are wholly corrupt narcissistic racists.
Based on your story
By ScottB
Thu, 04/25/2019 - 2:34pm
ICE issued a detainer for the man in custody not based upon the charge of being a fugitive from justice (not justices) in Pennsylvania, but rather based on the fingerprints sent to a national database. It seems rather unlikely that a fingerprint match would mean that ICE was trying to detain the wrong guy, and a State District Court judge certainly ought to be able to connect that set of facts together.
And in any event, the judge's "authority as a trial judge charged w/preserving order & dignity in the court" doesn't entitle her to interfere with Federal law enforcement officers lawfully carrying out their duties. That will and indeed has put her on the wrong side of the law. As someone who by training and position should know the law far better than 99.9% of the population, the Feds absolutely should throw the book at her.
But...
By JB
Thu, 04/25/2019 - 4:03pm
Of course his fingerprints would be in a database if he has had previous interactions with ICE- or previous deportations.
Unfortunately for the MAGAverse, the constitution does not specifically direct its rights to citizens. Most language is directed to persons on US soil, including due process (unless in immigration proceedings which this was not).
The important aspect of this case that shouldn’t be overlooked is the identity of the defendant was not confirmed and the Judge was concerned about mistaken indenting.
Taking a step back from good ole hate mongering directed towards undocumented folks, isn’t it concerning that a man would be removed after showing up for a court date when it could have been the wrong person? Isn’t concerning to remove a person’s access to due process especially when they are abiding the law and showing up to court?
I appreciate a Judge who follows the law, respects due process and I would do the same. I would do it for all the racists and MAGA supporters as well because when you start stripping away rights and humanity for one person, it’s easy to keep doing it to others.
Her role as a State District Court Judge
By ScottB
Fri, 04/26/2019 - 10:05am
Doesn't extend to determining if ICE is detaining the wrong guy. That's up to a Federal judge/magistrate/administrative law judge to determine. In any event, if the guy came up as a match via fingerprints to someone who had been deported twice, chances are that he's been barred from entering the country for a long time, if not life, and that's grounds for deportation.
Commending the guy for showing up to a court date is like commending someone for stopping when a (legitimate) cop is trying to pull them over. You're required to do so by law and if you don't you're going to be in worse trouble. If the charges are truly against someone else then showing up to court is your opportunity to demonstrate that, rather than facing the additional penalties for not showing up to court when summonsed.
There's no removal of "a person’s access to due process" because he'd still have a hearing with an immigration judge. That said, if he had been barred from entering the country and there's a fingerprint match, it's an open-and-shut case.
You can appreciate judges who follow the law but she wasn't following the law! She was just making up shit as she went along to satisfy her own political leanings. And she knew she was doing something illegal because she turned off the recording device in the courtroom to conceal the discussion of how to sneak the defendant out the back door! That's absolutely outrageous!
Surely, John Grisham (or Affleck, ugh)
By Friartuck
Thu, 04/25/2019 - 2:44pm
Will turn this into a movie. Props to the judge!
Bad news, feds
By Michael
Thu, 04/25/2019 - 3:05pm
The Fugitive Slave Act was repealed in 1864
If America doesn't like
By Will LaTulippe
Thu, 04/25/2019 - 3:06pm
How Massachusetts is conducting itself, then maybe it should quietly, and without violent resistance, step aside as Massachusetts becomes its own country. We're subsidizing this experiment, after all.
Money talks. (Expletive) walks.
Pretty sure we could get VT on board
By Old Groucho
Thu, 04/25/2019 - 4:14pm
Then we ask to be annexed by Canada
Maple syrup cartel
By Belmont
Thu, 04/25/2019 - 8:29pm
We'd have the maple syrup market pretty much locked up. That's worth a lot.
New York
By lbb
Fri, 04/26/2019 - 9:42am
As a kid growing up in New York state public schools, we were taught that we produce more maple syrup than Vermont, so there.
Who wants to be part of Canada?
By Stevil
Thu, 04/25/2019 - 10:26pm
Nice people, but too damned cold. Plus everything will cost 33% more.
33% more
By Pete X
Fri, 04/26/2019 - 10:43am
Yeah who wants healthcare that won't bankrupt you if you get sick? Who wants access to affordable insulin? Who wants to live in a country where military spending isn't 50% of discretionary spending? Sounds terrible.
Do you live in this world?
By Stevil
Sat, 04/27/2019 - 11:43pm
A- been almost 10 years since we had healthcare breaking people . Far from perfect, but different times.
B - tell me you aren't so stupid or naive that you don't understand why we have to spend so much on defense?
I should ask you that.
By Pete X
Mon, 04/29/2019 - 8:10pm
A- What nationality are the people on this list begging for money? https://www.gofundme.com/start/medical-fundraising...
It must be nice in your world where people aren't rationing critical healthcare or going bankrupt to pay for treatment.
B- I am smart and worldly enough to understand that we don't need to spend more on defense than the next 7 countries combined! https://www.pgpf.org/chart-archive/0053_defense-co... I'm an aerospace engineer smart and worldly enough to know defense systems like the F-35 are utter wastes of money. I'm smart and worldly enough to know we don't need to invade countries like Iraq for oil.
Actually I have a relative on that list
By Stevil
Tue, 04/30/2019 - 12:45pm
The money isn't for health care - it's for lots of other stuff. Handicap access, better physical therapy programs and more. The healthcare is covered. If you are not getting critical healthcare in this country either your local hospital is doing something illegal or you are doing something wrong.
There are of course utter wastes of money in any 700 billion dollar budget. And maybe it should be 600 billion. But there's a reason ours is WAY bigger than others and why it absorbs so much of our otherwise discretionary budget.
Iraqi oil? Lots of reasons we may have invaded them and many of them not good reasons. But oil wasn't a major driving factor in that - at least not directly. In fact we are now net EXPORTERS of oil.
Incredibly, willfully blind
By Pete X
Tue, 04/30/2019 - 5:06pm
So I have to ask you, what the hell are you smoking?
I just cut and pasted a bit from the very first cancer patient that came up on the link I sent: “Going through the treatments for 2 years, took a toll on our financial status. I wouldn’t have believed that the common reason for bankruptcy is health care expenses three years ago. After going through all the expenses, I’ve realized that it is challenging financially to have the health care expenses. We sold our house and liquidated all our assets and savings to go through this, however, we were content that she was free of cancer. â€.
People are dying needlessly of diabetes every day, people are going bankrupt over healthcare costs every day, Life expectancy in this country has dropped for the last three years straight! I mean open a newspaper, read any study on healthcare in this country...something. Your callous ignorance is stunning.
On defense, Glad to see even someone like you admit we’re wasting billions of dollars a year.
Not buying it
By Stevil
Thu, 05/02/2019 - 9:32am
Very hard for health care costs to cause bankruptcy. If they do, with possibly a few exceptions, you probably were doing something else wrong first. Pre ACA you were right. Today it's virtually impossible for health costs to be the root cause of bankruptcy.
Keep in mind that about 50% of Americans literally can't afford to change their tires if necessary (think about that next time you are on the road).
'It's your fault you got sick"
By Pete X
Tue, 05/14/2019 - 9:54am
That's your argument?
Pages
Add comment