A federal grand jury in Boston on Thursday indicted a Newton District Court judge and a now-retired state court officer on obstruction of justice charges for allegedly helping an undocumented immigrant evade a federal agent who had appeared at the courthouse to detain him last year.
The unusual charge against a sitting judge infuriated immigration advocates and state Attorney General Maura Healey, who called it “politically motivated,’’ but it was praised by others.
The judge, Shelley Richmond Joseph, 51, faces up to 20 years in prison for charges of conspiracy to obstruct justice and obstruction of a federal proceeding for helping a Dominican national flee from the back entrance of the Newton courthouse last April, according to Massachusetts US Attorney Andrew Lelling. Wesley MacGregor, a former court officer who allegedly helped the defendant sneak out, was also indicted.
“This case is not about immigration,” Lelling said at a news conference. “It is about the rule of law. . . . This case is not intended as a policy statement, at least not beyond making the point that the laws have to apply equally even if you’re a state court judge.”
Many legal specialists said they could not recall such a case, which underscored the highly politicized debate over immigration and the tension between state authorities and the federal officials who have been instructed by President Trump and the Department of Justice to crack down on undocumented immigrants.
“This is unprecedented,” said Iván Espinoza-Madrigal, executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice in Boston. “It’s the first instance we know of a judge being charged in this manner.”
Healey called the indictment “a radical and politically motivated attack on our state and the independence of our courts.”
“I am deeply disappointed by US Attorney Andrew Lelling’s misuse of prosecutorial resources and the chilling effect his actions will have,” she said in a statement.
MacGregor, 56, also faces perjury charges for allegedly lying to the grand jury. Both defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges. MacGregor, who wore a (turn-in, page A6) Celtics T-shirt and shorts into court, was brought in by a US marshal. Joseph, who wore a black dress, walked into court flanked by her attorneys.
MacGregor retired in March. Joseph has been suspended without pay, according to a Trial Court spokeswoman.
“This prosecution is absolutely political,” Thomas M. Hoopes, Joseph’s lawyer, told reporters after the hearing. “Judge Joseph is absolutely innocent.”
REALLY?
Governor Charlie Baker, who appointed Joseph in November 2017, said he believed the allegations were serious enough to warrant the federal investigation.
Baker called for Joseph’s removal last December, when the Globe first reported that she was being investigated by a federal grand jury.
“I said at the time of these incidents, I was disturbed by them,” Baker said. “I still am.”
Todd M. Lyons, acting Boston field office director for the enforcement and removal operations section of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Joseph’s alleged actions were “a detriment to the rule of law.”
“In order for our criminal justice system to work fairly for all people, it must be protected against judicial officials who would seek to replace the implementation of our laws with their own ideological views or politically driven agenda,” Lyons said.
According to the indictment, an officer from Immigration and Customs Enforcement was dispatched to Newton on April 2, 2018, to detain Jose Medina-Perez, a Dominican national who had entered the country illegally three times.
That's technically breaking the law, but not really.
Medina-Perez, who had been arrested by Newton police on March 30 on charges of drug possession and being a fugitive from justice in Pennsylvania, was identified by the initials A.S., for “alien subject,’’ in the indictment, which detailed the events of that day.
The immigration officer, who was dressed in plainclothes, arrived at court around 9:30 a.m. with a warrant and identified himself to court personnel, including the court clerk who alerted Joseph to his presence.
The officer, who was not identified in the indictment, took a seat in a section of the courtroom reserved for the public.
Shortly after the case was called, the clerk told the officer to leave the courtroom and go outside.
The clerk told the officer that if A.S. was released, he would leave the courtroom through the lobby. The officer waited there.
Inside the courtroom, the lawyer for A.S., David Jellinek, told Joseph that his client would be deported if the ICE officer detained him, according to a recording of the proceeding.
“Can we go off the record for a moment?” Joseph asked the clerk.
The courtroom recorder was turned off for 52 seconds, in violation of Trial Court rules.
Uh-oh.
“The judge and the defense attorney then conspired to have A.S. released out the back door of the courthouse,” Lelling said.
The recorder was turned back on and Jellinek could be heard asking if he could go with A.S. downstairs. “I believe he has some property downstairs,” said Jellinek, who was not identified in the indictment.
After the proceeding, MacGregor escorted A.S., his lawyer, and an interpreter downstairs where he used his security key to let A.S. out the back door.
“The ICE officer . . . did not know that A.S. had been released and in fact sat there waiting for someone . . . who was already gone,” Lelling said.
Two weeks after the hearing, a senior district judge asked Joseph why she turned off the recorder.
“Defendant Joseph falsely attributed unfamiliarity with the Courtroom recording equipment,” according to the indictment.
Oh, so she broke the law then lied about it.
Ooops!
Joseph’s actions show the judge intentionally interfered with a federal investigation, Lelling said. Lelling declined to say whether Jellinek is under federal investigation. Jellinek declined to comment.
Former Massachusetts US attorney Michael Sullivan said Lelling made the right call.
“It’s critically important that whether they are defendants, whether they are prosecutors, whether they are witnesses, or whether they are law enforcement officers, that the judge is going to be faithful to his or her oath of office,” he said. “That is to enforce all of the laws, not just the laws that they like.”
Eva A. Millona, executive director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, said that while what Joseph allegedly did was “unwise,” the decision to prosecute her was extreme.
“It’s shocking, it’s going too far, too aggressive,” Millona said. “I think the US attorney is trying to make an example of her to send a message to any judge who disapproves of having ICE in their courtroom.”
It happens all the time.
Retired federal court judge Nancy Gertner noted that Joseph was a new judge at the time and may have been unaware her actions could be interpreted as obstruction.
Oh, yeah?
Gertner drew the parallel with Donald Trump Jr., who was not charged with obstruction of justice in the Russia investigation, despite meeting with representatives of the Russian government.
OMFG!
“If she did it — and I am not convinced she did it — it was a mistake,’’ Gertner said. “You don’t haul people into for court for making mistakes. . . . Criminal charges under these circumstances are not reasonable.”
She is calling it abuse of power!
So let me get this straight: now the Globe doesn't care about obstruction of justice?
Daniel S. Medwed, a law professor at Northeastern University, said the indictment felt like a “warning shot” to state court judges that they must comply with ICE requests to detain immigrants wanted for removal or face federal consequences, but Lelling, the US attorney, insisted the case was not about immigration.
He noted that he had heard “gasps” at the idea of a judge being criminally investigated.
“Are judges special? Sure,” Lelling said. “But not because of privileges they enjoy. They’re special because they’re entrusted with enormous power.”
He's not a judge.
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Newton District Court Judge Shelley M. Richmond Joseph left federal court. (Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff)
Doesn't look to happy seeing the other side of the bench, huh?
At least she isn't the one on the hot seat(?):
"Top federal prosecutor in Mass. is now on the hot seat" by Maria Cramer and Matt Stout Globe Staff, April 26, 2019
When President Trump first nominated Andrew Lelling to be Massachusetts’ US attorney in 2017, even liberal-leaning judges and criminal defense lawyers described the prosecutor as judicious and fair.
Now, some are using different descriptions: overzealous, grandstanding, and politically motivated.
Lelling’s indictment this week of a sitting state court judge on charges she allowed an undocumented immigrant to elude federal authorities has thrust the fast-rising prosecutor into the country’s heated immigration debate and put him at the center of another dispute about prosecutorial overreach.
Former Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court justice Geraldine S. Hines said Friday she was on the phone all morning with colleagues disturbed by Lelling’s decision to prosecute Judge Shelley Richmond Joseph, 51, who on Thursday left the federal courthouse in Boston in tears after pleading not guilty to obstructing justice and perjury charges.
She BROKE THE LAW and then perjured herself!!
“Maybe he’s trying to get on Trump’s radar for whatever reason, and this is certainly the kind of thing that’s going to get attention in Washington,” said Hines, who was appointed by Governor Deval Patrick, a Democrat, and retired from the state’s highest court in 2017. “It’s a way to get yourself noticed.”
Lelling declined to comment on Friday. Personable and seemingly at ease in the public spotlight, Lelling has also ardently defended the work of federal immigration authorities, and he appeared to almost anticipate criticism when he announced the indictment of Joseph and Wesley MacGregor, a now-retired court officer.
“From certain quarters, I have heard the occasional gasp of dismay, or outrage, at the notion of holding a judge accountable for violating federal law. ‘How dare I,’ ” Lelling said Thursday. “But if the law is not applied equally, it cannot credibly be applied to anyone. If this defendant were a random man or woman on the street, I don’t think I’d be hearing those gasps. You wouldn’t be here and neither would I.”
Before Trump appointed him, Lelling, 49, was a federal prosecutor for 15 years, first in the civil rights division in the Justice Department and later for the US attorney in Virginia and then Massachusetts.
His 17-month tenure has already been marked by several notable cases.
Perhaps Lelling’s biggest bombshell came in March — the massive college admissions bribery scandal that has ensnared celebrity parents, wealthy financiers, and coaches at elite universities. His office has already won a number of guilty pleas, and the case is easily the highest-profile undertaking of the Boston office since the death penalty trial of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
His office has also secured guilty pleas from former Massachusetts State Police troopers as part of a wide-ranging investigation of overtime fraud, and it has also drawn national headlines for its racketeering case against former executives of an opioid drug maker that included revelations of sales reps plying doctors with strip club visits and $500 bottles of champagne.
Lelling has personally also drawn praise from his superiors at the Department of Justice, including then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who came to Boston last year to join him in announcing identity fraud charges against dozens of foreign nationals, but the case against Joseph may be his most controversial.
The judge, who has been suspended without pay, is accused of helping an undocumented immigrant facing drug and fugitive charges evade an ICE agent who had appeared at Newton District Court to detain him last year. Lelling’s office said Joseph and MacGregor allowed the immigrant to leave the courthouse through a back door while the immigration officer waited in the lobby.
Lelling’s charges drew quick condemnation from Maura Healey, the state’s Democratic attorney general, and Nancy Gertner, a retired federal court judge who once praised Lelling for his tempered approach to cases. Now, Gertner said, she is alarmed by what she termed the “overzealousness” of the office under Lelling.
“To take this sort of nuclear step without understanding the implications at all and giving this self-righteous press conference, all I can think is: This is the Department of Justice of Donald Trump,” Gertner said.
Let's all be glad he held of on Iran for at least one more day.
A spokeswoman for Senator Edward J Markey on Friday also condemned the indictment, calling it an “unwarranted intrusion’’ into Massachusetts state affairs.
OMFG!
Immigration is under federal jurisdiction!
Lelling’s defenders see it differently. He has also prosecuted defendants that have gone after institutions targeted by Trump, including the news media and clinics that provide abortions.
In September 2018, Lelling charged Robert D. Chain, a California man who allegedly threatened to kill employees of The Boston Globe last year and is expected to plead guilty. Earlier this month, Lelling charged Matthew Haviland with cyberstalking after he sent threatening e-mails to a professor who has been an outspoken advocate of abortion rights.
Time to break him.
In the case against Joseph, the prosecution may be aggressive, but if Lelling has evidence to support it, he has the discretion to enforce federal law, said Brian T. Kelly, a former assistant US attorney in Boston and now a partner at Nixon Peabody LLP.
“No, I don’t think it’s political,” Kelly said. “In fact, if he wanted to be political — and avoid criticism — he wouldn’t have brought the case at all,” and organizations seeking to limit immigration roundly cheered the indictment.
“It’s absolutely preposterous for a state judge to be undermining federal authority on immigration enforcement,” said Matt O’Brien, director of research at the Federation for American Immigration Reform. “It’s not clear to me how this is any different . . . if a judge were to help someone avoid any other kind of criminal prosecution or civil warrant for that matter.”
However, some legal specialists pointed to evidence in the case that may undermine the strength of Lelling’s prosecution. The indictment includes a transcript of a sidebar conference during the hearing in which the defense attorney and even the Middlesex County prosecutor questioned whether ICE was seeking to detain the wrong person.
Why shut off the recorder for 52 seconds then?
Keith Halpern, a criminal defense attorney who is not involved in the case, said it could be argued the judge believed she was trying to prevent an injustice, not obstruct justice.
“I think it’s clear that the goal of all of them was to do something that they thought was in the interest of justice and fairness,” Halpern said.
UNREAL!
Yeah, let's turn everything on its head!
Lelling said during the press conference that the defendant — a Dominican national identified as “A.S.,” for “alien subject,” in the indictment — entered the country illegally three times. The defendant was arrested by ICE a month after the Newton court incident, according to ICE officials, and has been released on bond while awaiting a decision by an immigration judge.
This isn’t the first time the US attorney in Boston has been accused of overreaching. Carmen Ortiz, who held the post for nearly seven years until 2017, was accused of “bullying” Aaron Swartz when she charged him with illegally downloading massive numbers of scholarly articles. Swartz, a technology advocate, committed suicide in January 2013, and in December 2016, a federal appeals court threw out her office’s high-profile convictions of three former state Probation Department officials, charging it had “overstepped its bounds” in bringing criminal charges.
It was Boston Calling, and what they did was make an example of Swartz for because he tried to help the children getting caught up in organized crime on the Internet.
--more--"
They are saying he overreached..... like these guys:
"Suffolk, Middlesex DAs join advocates in suit against ICE over courthouse visits" by Maria Cramer and John R. Ellement Globe Staff, April 29, 2019
Two high-profile Massachusetts prosecutors joined public defenders and immigration advocates Monday in a lawsuit against the federal government to halt immigration agents from making civil arrests at state courthouses, an aggressive move that underscores the escalating tensions between federal and state officials over immigration enforcement.
The lawsuit, which Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins and Middlesex District Attorney Marian T. Ryan called unprecedented, seeks a ruling that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has no authority to search state courthouses for people facing civil immigration violation warrants.
Rollins and Ryan filed the lawsuit less than a week after a state court judge and a court officer were indicted for allegedly helping an undocumented immigrant facing drug and fugitive charges evade an ICE officer in Newton District Court.
“That case demonstrates the need for what we see here today,” Ryan said at a news conference, noting that the complaint filed Monday had been in the works for a year.....
--more--"
No offense, but they look like mean.
Related:
Trump blasts Rollins, Ryan on ICE lawsuit
They rankled him.
Meanwhile, the court of public opinion has weighed in, but that all depends on your idea of justice:
Useless cruelty, committed in our name, and a lessening of our values
ICE arrests 2 Salvadoran men at Suffolk County courthouses
Alleged MS-13 member accused of murder was once identified in Boston gang database
They let him escape through a side door!
Newton judge to return to court May 30 on charges of helping immigrant to elude ICE officer
US Attorney Lelling defends case brought against Newton judge
US Attorney Lelling’s principled prosecution of Judge Shelley Joseph
The criticism from the legal and political elite has been partisan, indignant, and confused.
Globe testified as a character witness:
"Low-profile judge, indicted for allegedly helping undocumented immigrant, finds herself in harsh spotlight" by Maria Cramer Globe Staff, May 21, 2019
When Shelley Joseph was sworn in as a district court judge in the fall of 2017, her father was in the front row, watching from his wheelchair.
Paul Richmond, a retired food sales manager, was in the final stages of Parkinson’s disease, but he and Joseph’s mother were beaming as Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito gave the oath to their elder daughter.
He died a month later, and Joseph often spoke of how grateful she was that her father had lived to see her reach the pinnacle of her 30-year career in law, said Alan Fanger, a longtime friend who was among dozens of former colleagues, friends, and family members gathered at the State House ceremony.
“They got to see their daughter confirmed as a judge, which is pretty much near the top of accomplishments that anyone could hope for a child,” Fanger said. “That joy was palpable. I was sitting a number of rows behind them and I could see the smiles, ear-to-ear smiles the whole time.”
Five months after her appointment, in April 2018, federal prosecutors say, Joseph helped an undocumented immigrant who came before her in Newton District Court on drug charges evade an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who had come to detain him. She now stands indicted on charges of obstruction of justice, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years.
The case has thrust the low-profile judge into the heated debate over illegal immigration. Critics have held her up as a symbol of judicial arrogance who defied federal laws to push a liberal agenda, while supporters have called her prosecution extreme and politically motivated.
Retired judges and Attorney General Maura Healey have expressed outrage, saying US Attorney Andrew Lelling has violated the independence of the state judiciary and extended his power into a matter that could have been handled administratively by the Massachusetts Trial Court and the state’s Commission on Judicial Conduct. Lelling has countered that he was not aware of any state authority that referred Joseph’s alleged actions to the commission.
Joseph, 51, pleaded not guilty on April 25, with her lawyer telling reporters, “This prosecution is absolutely political.”
She has been suspended without pay from the bench.
For friends and colleagues of Joseph, a mother of two teenage girls who early in her career was a prosecutor targeting violent gangs in Boston, her current predicament defies belief.
Scott Harshbarger, the former state attorney general who hired Joseph as an assistant attorney general in 1993, one year after she graduated from the New England School of Law, said that even if the allegations prove to be true, the punishment she has received so far — a federal indictment that has led to loss of income — feels too harsh.
“I know her values,” he said. “I know her core and everything I saw was a person who prided themselves professionally on not only being excellent but in caring deeply about the law, its fairness. That’s, to me, what hurts most about this.”
In her hometown of Natick, neighbors and town leaders are stunned, said David Linsky, a state representative and longtime neighbor and friend of Joseph and her husband.
“She’s been active in PTA . . . after-prom parties, youth sports, everything that everybody else in Natick does,” said Linsky, who declined to comment on the allegations. “Shelley Joseph was the last person that anyone could ever imagine standing as a defendant indicted in federal court. She wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
Objection, your honor!
What does any of that have to do with the case or the charges?
Lelling has stood firm on his decision to charge Joseph and Wesley MacGregor, a 56-year-old retired court officer who is accused of using his security card to help the immigrant, Jose Medina-Perez, flee the courthouse. MacGregor has pleaded not guilty.
“My focus is on the conduct of this judge,” Lelling said during a May 6 appearance on WGBH’s “Greater Boston.” “To me, it’s not an immigration case. I know that seems counterintuitive to people. It’s a rule-of-law case. You have, the indictment alleges, a sitting judge who helps a federal fugitive evade capture by letting him out the back door. You can’t do that.”
????!!!!!
Michael O’Keefe, district attorney in the Cape and Islands, said what has disturbed him about Joseph’s alleged conduct is the secrecy of her actions: Prosecutors said she asked a court clerk to tell the ICE officer to wait outside; ordered a clerk to turn off the recorder so she could hatch a plan with the defense to have Medina-Perez slip out a back door; and lied to supervisors who questioned her about the incident.
YUP!
“The allegation here is not that this judge stood up and was forthright about what she was doing,” said O’Keefe. “If she had been, I might have a different view of this. It’s the subterfuge. That’s where the problem is . . . the feds frankly, in my judgment, are guilty of overreaching in many instances. I don’t think this is one of them.”
Joseph declined to comment through her attorney, Thomas Hoopes, who cited the pending case against her.
Unable to work, Joseph has spent the last two weeks trying to distract herself by taking long walks with her dog, a Lhasa Apso, taking spin classes and playing volleyball in an intramural group, and visiting with her mother, according to friends.
“She’s devastated,” said Harshbarger.
AWWWWW!
Joseph spent seven years in his office investigating gang activity, insurance fraud, and domestic violence.....
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Then we find out she brought it on herself by turning down a plea deal:
"Suspended Newton judge declined plea deal that would have meant no criminal charges" by Andrea Estes, Shelley Murphy and Maria Cramer Globe Staff, May 23, 2019
Suspended Newton Judge Shelley Richmond Joseph turned down a deal that would have allowed her to avoid prosecution — and possibly preserve her career — if she admitted that she illegally helped an undocumented immigrant elude arrest by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, according to several people briefed on the federal prosecutor’s offer.
Any sympathy for her just evaporated, and what a twist of the shoe on the other foot.
US Attorney Andrew Lelling had offered Joseph a “deferred prosecution agreement” under which she would not have been indicted and, in a year, as long as she didn’t repeat the conduct, prosecutors would abandon the obstruction of justice charges, according to the people familiar with the deal, but Joseph refused to admit she violated federal law and now faces the possibility of up to 20 years in prison if convicted of obstruction of justice.
The US attorney’s office declined to comment on the plea offer, which legal experts say is extremely rare.
Opinions on whether Joseph should have accepted the deal varied depending on a person’s view of the original indictment.
The near-unprecedented nature of the case — a sitting judge indicted for criminal behavior — makes it unclear whether Joseph would lose her job as a judge or even her law license, said retired Supreme Judicial Court Justice Geraldine Hines, who has been critical of the indictment.....
--more--"
She isn't even getting paid:
"Lawyers for indicted judge file motion to have her salary reinstated" by Maria Cramer and Andrea Estes Globe Staff, May 30, 2019
Shelley Joseph, the district court judge who was indicted on obstruction charges for allegedly helping an undocumented immigrant escape federal detention, is seeking to have her salary reinstated as she remains on suspension and her legal bills mount.
Can't she get a public defender?
On Thursday, her lawyers filed a motion with the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court requesting that her annual salary of $181,000 be reinstated while the case winds its way through federal court in Boston.
“Imposition of such a sanction prior to any determination of wrongdoing is contrary to the presumption of innocence to which Judge Joseph is constitutionally entitled,” the motion stated.
That may technically be true, but the reality is the opposite now, from Steve and Maury to the ma$$ media and pre$$: you must PROVE your INNOCENCE now, and the lie detector result prove that you did NOT tell the truth.
Her lawyers, Michael B. Keating and David A. Kluft, said they had found no cases where a judge had been suspended without pay “prior to a determination of wrongdoing by this court or an administrative body.”
“The court’s order regarding Judge Joseph is without precedent,” they wrote.
In an affidavit, Joseph said she has two daughters in college and financially supports her mother, whose husband — Joseph’s father — died in December 2017. Joseph and her husband, a real estate attorney with his own practice, have seriously considered selling their house in Natick to cover their expenses and her legal bills, her affidavit stated.
I know, I'm supposed to feel sorry for her receiving consequences for her actions.
Former federal prosecutors and opponents of illegal immigration have said US Attorney Andrew Lelling was right to indict Joseph.
The Globe reported last week that Joseph turned down a deal from prosecutors that would have allowed her to avoid prison time and a record of a felony conviction in exchange for admitting to the allegations detailed in the indictment.
Joseph allegedly ordered that the court recorder be turned off for 52 seconds and during that time devised a plan with Jose Medina-Perez’s lawyer to sneak him out the back.
Wesley MacGregor, a former court officer, was also indicted on obstruction for allegedly using his security card to let Medina-Perez, who had entered the country illegally three times and been arrested by Newton police on March 30 on charges of drug possession and being a fugitive from justice in Pennsylvania, out. MacGregor, who was in court Thursday, declined to comment through his lawyer, Rosemary Scapicchio.
He came with half a dozen supporters, who shook his hand and waved at him as he left the courtroom.
“Hang in there, bro,” one of them said.
ICE eventually detained Medina-Perez, who has not been identified by federal prosecutors. He was released by an immigration judge and is facing a hearing in July, according to ICE.....
What makes them think he will show?
Some sort of paper trail?
--more--"
What she has to look forward to:
"Federal officials investigate Mass. prisons on elderly, ill inmates, solitary confinement" by Maria Cramer Globe Staff, May 23, 2019
Federal prosecutors are investigating the Massachusetts prison system over its use of solitary confinement, and the treatment of elderly and severely ill prisoners, according to several attorneys who have spoken with federal investigators.
The investigation, launched by the civil rights unit of the US attorney’s office in Massachusetts, is focused on reports of mistreatment of inmates in order to identify potential patterns and practices of abuse, those familiar with the investigation said.
Lawyers who have been interviewed by federal investigators said they have provided documents alleging abuses of inmates who are 50 and older, inmates who are terminally ill, and prisoners who have spent months, even years, in isolation.
The investigation was not sparked by any particular incident but rather a general concern over the treatment of inmates in poor health, and the state’s use of lengthy periods of solitary confinement, according to a person familiar with the review.....
The solitary confinement thing is barbaric, and this has been a problem around here for decades. Massachusetts tortures its citizens, yeah.
--more--"
At least they have a defender:
"Governor Baker defends state prison system, now under federal investigation" by Matt Stout Globe Staff, May 24, 2019
Governor Charlie Baker defended the state’s prison system Friday amid revelations it’s now under federal investigation, saying he has no concerns about its operations.
Baker, whose administration oversees the Department of Correction and its nearly 8,800 inmates, indicated the investigation has been active for some time. He didn’t specify how long, nor has the agency commented on the specifics of the inquiry.
The probe, launched by the civil rights unit of the US attorney’s office in Massachusetts, is focused on reports of mistreatment of inmates in order to identify potential patterns and practices of abuse, the Globe reported Thursday. Lawyers who have been interviewed by federal investigators said they have provided documents alleging abuse of inmates who are 50 and older, inmates who are terminally ill, and prisoners who have spent months, even years, in isolation.
“First of all, this investigation has been going on for a while,’’ Baker told reporters Friday following an unrelated event in the Seaport. “We’ve been cooperating fully with the Department of Justice from the very beginning, and we’ll cooperate all the way through.
“The department has complied with every ruling, every decision, and every order that’s been issued with respect to the way it operates. And we’ll continue to do so,” he added.
Asked if had any concerns about the department’s operations, given the investigation, Baker was blunt: “I don’t have concerns. No, I don’t.”
Lawyers and advocates for inmates have long criticized Massachusetts prison officials for sending too many inmates into solitary confinement and keeping them there too long, and some lawmakers have expressed frustration with the department’s implementation of laws passed last year as part of a sweeping criminal justice reform bill and designed to drive down the number of prisoners being held in restrictive housing.
Senator James B. Eldridge, the Senate chair of Committee on the Judiciary, said he called Baker’s public safety secretary, Thomas A. Turco III, on Friday after news of the investigation broke. The two had a “constructive” 10-minute conversation, but the department needs to move more quickly on the progress it’s made, he said.
The state system “needs to be more proactive to not just follow the law, but really take a serious approach in reducing the numbers in segregated housing,” said Eldridge, an Acton Democrat. “It’s fair to say that it raises some alarms when the Trump administration’s justice department is raising concerns about our state prison.’’
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Related:
"Officials announced Thursday how they plan to strengthen city rules that prevent local police officers from assisting their federal counterparts on immigration enforcement. The original Boston Trust Act, adopted in 2014, was intended by city councilors to keep police from involvement with deporting immigrants. The goal was to build trust between immigrants and local police in matters of public safety, without the looming threat of deportation, but over the years, immigrant advocates have cited scattered cases in which Boston police assisted federal authorities in identifying and detaining someone for deportation. The most recent example, first reported by WBUR, was disclosed in a lawsuit brought by the Trump administration that alleged that Boston-based Tara Construction reported the immigration status of a worker to a Boston detective, so that the company could avoid paying him worker’s compensation insurance. The Boston detective then alerted an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, who apprehended the worker....."
Time for your hearing:
"Federal judge halts immigration arrests at Massachusetts courts while lawsuit plays out" by Danny McDonald Globe Staff, June 20, 2019
A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked immigration agents from making civil arrests at Massachusetts courthouses, siding with two prosecutors who have sued the federal government over the practice.
US District Judge Indira Talwani granted a preliminary injunction that stops US Immigration and Customs Enforcement “from civilly arresting parties, witnesses, and others attending Massachusetts courthouses on official business while they are going to, attending, or leaving the courthouses.”
Thursday’s order marks the first judicial ruling in the country to halt such immigration arrests across a state, according to Oren Nimni, an attorney for Lawyers for Civil Rights in Boston.
In April, Middlesex District Attorney Marian T. Ryan and Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins joined public defenders and immigration advocates in the suit seeking to block the practice. The litigation has underscored escalating tensions between federal and state officials over immigration enforcement, with ICE asking a judge to reject the request for a preliminary injunction.
On Thursday, ICE spokesman John Mohan said in a statement that the agency “was reviewing the court’s decision.”
“At this time, we have no direct comment on the matter,” he said.
ICE, Page B5
In recent years, ICE policy allowed for agents to pick up illegal immigrants in and around courthouses in Massachusetts and other states, according to court documents. Immigration officials say they do so for public safety reasons.
Immigrant advocates say the practice discourages people from using the courthouse. For example, domestic violence victims are avoiding courthouses rather than expose themselves to ICE, according to the lawsuit.
Ryan was among those to welcome the ruling, saying in a statement that it recognizes “the irreparable harm caused by ICE’s disruptive policy of using our courthouses to conduct civil arrests.”
“The granting of this injunction is a critical step in the right direction for our Commonwealth and it should be a model for our nation,” she said.
Rollins also hailed the ruling, [which] comes as a Newton District Court judge and a now-retired state court officer face obstruction of justice charges.....
They don't mention her by name, but the Globe did talk to an attorney for Lawyers for Civil Rights in Boston, the executive director of Lawyers for Civil Rights in Boston, the executive director at the ACLU of Massachusetts, and a Democratic Boston House Representative.
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You can head on over to the mosque after the hearing:
"Head of Roxbury mosque tapped to lead city’s immigrant-outreach office" by Milton J. Valencia Globe Staff, June 21, 2019
Yusufi Vali, who most recently ran the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center in Roxbury, was tapped Thursday to head the city’s Office for Immigrant Advancement, becoming the highest-ranking Muslim in city government in recent memory.
The 36-year-old, whose family immigrated to the United States from India when he was 9, takes over a critical post in constituent services at a time when immigrants are being scapegoated by the Trump administration and its supporters.
In an interview, Vali praised what he called the values of Bostonians who rallied around the local Muslim community following the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, which were carried out in the name of Al Qaeda. City residents could have turned away from Muslims, he said, but instead “turned toward them.”
Similarly, he saw communities of all faiths rally around the local Jewish community following the massacre last year at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. Earlier this year, local groups and officials, including Walsh, showed support for Boston’s Muslim community following an attack at two mosques in New Zealand.
The deportations have begun, and he forgot the Sri Lankan psyop.
“We in Boston are going to cross ethnic, gender, racial lines to do what’s good in our community,” Vali said.....
He said the new assignment “is really an opportunity to live out my values.”
--more--"
He sure does have a nice smile, huh?
