A Boston judge accused of helping an illegal alien evade U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and escape out of the courthouse in 2018 is facing a misconduct hearing on Monday. 

The judge, Judge Shelley M. Richmond Joseph, is currently facing a civil misconduct charge from a 2018 incident in which she allegedly helped Jose Medina-Perez, a Dominican national who had been deported twice, leave Newton District Court undetected. Medina-Perez, who had been prohibited from re-entering the United States until 2027, had appeared in court on drug possession charges and a fugitive warrant from Pennsylvania and an ICE agent was waiting to take him into custody. 

Joseph is appearing before the Suffolk Superior Court in Boston on Monday and the hearing is ongoing. Presiding Judge Denis McInerney said that he will issue a report after the hearing concludes of his findings and recommendations. 

Federal prosecutors alleged Joseph instructed a court clerk to tell the ICE agent present to wait in the lobby, claiming that if the defendant was released, he would come out through the courtroom door into the lobby. Later, Joseph allegedly ordered the courtroom clerk to “go off the record for a moment” and the courtroom audio recorder was turned off for 52 seconds. 

Once the audio record was back on, Joseph said she would release the defendant. Federal prosecutors said Medina-Perez’s defense attorney had asked to speak with the defendant downstairs and Joseph responded, “That’s fine. Of course.” When reminded by the clerk that an ICE Officer was in the courthouse, Joseph allegedly stated, “That’s fine. I’m not gonna allow them to come in here. But he’s been released on this,” according to court documents. 

Prosecutors said MacGregor allegedly escorted the defendant, his attorney and an interpreter downstairs to the lockup and used his security access card to open the rear sally-port exit and release the defendant. 

District Court Judge Shelley M. Richmond Joseph leaves Federal Court in Boston, Massachusetts, on April 25, 2019.  (Christopher Evans/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald via Getty Images)

The Justice Department agreed to drop the charges against Joseph in September 2022 after she referred herself to the Massachusetts Commission on Judicial Conduct (CJC) and admitted to certain facts related to the case. 

The Massachusetts CJC filed formal charges accusing Joseph of “willful judicial misconduct” and conduct “prejudicial to the administration of justice.”