The state’s high court has ruled Newton District Court judge Shelley Richmond Joseph must be paid her $184,000-plus salary during her suspension for allegedly helping a Dominican national slip out of her courtroom to avoid an ICE agent.

The Supreme Judicial Court ordered that Joseph receive compensation and all other benefits, while rejecting her request for reassignment to administrative duties during her suspension.

An attorney for Joseph, Michael Keating, said Tuesday “We’re very pleased with the decision. We’re grateful to the court they were willing to reexamine their earlier decision. We think it’s a fair decision here … I think it also reinforces the judicial independence of our judges.”

Justice Frank Gaziano issued a lone dissent to the decision.

“Because this decision smacks of preferential treatment, and thereby erodes public confidence in the judiciary, I cannot join my colleagues,” he wrote.

Five justices were split in their concurring orders. Chief Justice Ralph Gantz, with Justice Barbara Lenk and Justice Kimberly Budd, agreed Joseph’s restrictions to earn income during the indefinite suspension was part of the reason to vacate the court’s earlier ruling of suspension without pay.

Justice Scott Kafker and Justice Elspeth Cypher urged caution about using financial difficulties to justify differential treatment for judges. Kafker wrote Joseph should be paid because the judge’s defense could also stand as a defense “of the power of State judges to regulate the activities of ICE in State court houses.”

Joseph was suspended without pay by the high court in April after she and retired court officer Wesley MacGregor were indicted on federal charges of obstruction of justice and aiding and abetting for allegedly interfering with a federal investigation.

Joseph rejected a plea deal offered by federal prosecutors, a court filing last month revealed. A final status conference in her federal case is scheduled for Sept. 10 at the U.S. District Court.