“Mass. Judge, Retired Court Officer Face Federal Charges For Allegedly Helping Defendant Evade ICE” (WBUR):
A Middlesex County judge and former court officer are facing federal charges for allegedly helping a defendant in a Newton courtroom avoid arrest by an immigration officer last year.
Judge Shelley Richmond Joseph and now-retired court officer Wesley MacGregor are accused of helping the defendant, an undocumented immigrant, slip out the back door of Newton District Court while an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent waited to arrest him on a federal detainer in April 2018.
Susan Church, a Cambridge immigration attorney, said the case would worsen fears about the court system for undocumented immigrants.
“We have witnesses who won’t come to court. We have defendants who don’t get tried. We have people who can’t get divorced — women who can’t seek restraining orders because they are terrified by ICE interference,” she said.
The defendant isn’t named in the indictment, but has been previously identified as Jose Medina-Perez, 38, from the Dominican Republic. In April 2018, he was facing drug charges and a fugitive warrant out of Pennsylvania for drunken driving. Immigration officials say the defendant’s real name is Oscar Manuel Peguero. According to Lelling’s office, Peguero has been deported from the U.S. twice — in 2003 and 2007 — and a federal order had been issued prohibiting him for re-entering until 2027.
It is the last bit that fascinates me. This guy, whatever his name might happen to be, seems to be a frequent flyer in our criminal court system. We say that want him out of the U.S. But we also say that want him back starting in 2027 after he has matured a bit. That’s because we need more Dominicans in the U.S. and don’t think that in 2027 we’ll be able to find any who lack a criminal record?
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This is a 100% silly accusation. She should be tried for conspiring with Russia to hurt our democracy and to promote Donald Trump’s racist agenda. Proof: the Mueller report did not exonerate her. She should be held until trial in the same cell with Joe Biden the Kisser.
After 2027 someone may have recall other charges against him as it is customary now. We do not want him to go unpunished in the future by US justice system so we will let him in later.
What Judge Shelley Richmond Joseph has done is absolutely wrong. She put her feelings ahead of the law a very dangerous thing for any judge to do. Still, I will give her 0.5% credit that she may not have known the background of the defender for drug charges and a fugitive warrant out of Pennsylvania for drunken driving.
That said, I cannot, in anyway, shape or form, understand what MA A.G. Maura Healey and MA ACLU are trying to pull off [1]. After all, both have ALL the facts in front of them after this incident. No only is what they are doing is stupid because — defending a judged who let a criminal off the door — they are playing the politics card ahead of the law.
[1] https://patch.com/massachusetts/newton/indictment-newton-judge-ice-case-political-ag-healey