Judge Shelley Joseph: Full text and takeaways from her public pillorying

In 112 pages, the state Commission on Judicial Conduct rips Judge Shelley Joseph for her “willful judicial misconduct that brought the judicial office into disrepute,” the charging sheet states.

Those stinging accusations are contained in the first 11 pages (attached below). The full story from last night sums it all up, but here are takeaways off deadline:

• Whatever happens next — from loss of days off (a State Police go-to punishment) to being fired, Judge Joseph will never face jail time.
• She’s paid $207,855 a year, according to Herald and state Comptroller data. So, losing her judgeship would hit her in the pocketbook.
• But, will she also forfeit any pension? That question was just sent to her attorney, Thomas Hoopes, so circle back.
• Attorney Hoopes has kept Judge Joseph out of jail. That speaks for itself.
• The U.S. District Attorney’s Office kicked this case over to the Commission on Judicial Conduct in 2022.
• The commission falls under the auspices of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.
• The next step is to appoint a hearing officer; then a public hearing will be held.
• As Herald columnist Howie Carr has pointed out, co-defendant in the now-expunged federal case court, Newton District Court officer Wesley MacGregor, “retired” and since 2019 has been grabbing $4,060 a month state pension.
• Howie adds: Consider Shelley Joseph’s Democrat bona fides. In 1992, after law school, she worked on the Bill Clinton presidential campaign.
• The core of this case comes down to one day: April 2, 2018.
• On that day, Judge Joseph (here’s where it gets hazy) allowed or didn’t stop a twice-deported illegal immigrant to slip out the sally-port door of the Newton court to evade ICE agents waiting to deport him.
• Those ICE agents were doing their job, but the Commission states Judge Joseph thwarted them.
• The illegal immigrant, Jose Medina-Perez, 38, of the Dominican Republic, came before Judge Joseph that April day on criminal charges including being a fugitive from justice out of Pennsylvania and two drug violations.
• As reported today, vital to the Commission’s case is “approximately 52 seconds” when a sidebar conference was not recorded that April day. What did Judge Joseph say about the ICE agents and the illegal immigrant? We don’t know!