“The allegations in today’s indictment involve obstruction by a sitting judge, that is intentional interference with the enforcement of federal law, and that is a crime,” said Andrew Lelling, the U.S. attorney.

AD

AD

The ICE officer was in the courthouse on April 2, 2018, when the detainee was being arraigned on criminal charges. However, the officer was kept out of the courtroom by the judge, according to evidence included in the indictment.

After a courtroom sidebar conference, during which the courtroom recorder was turned off for less than a minute, MacGregor, acting as bailiff, escorted the detainee to a downstairs lockup.

From there, MacGregor allegedly used his security access card to open a rear exit from the courthouse and release the man, identified in the indictment only as “the alien subject.”

At one point during the on-the-record court proceedings more than a year ago, a court clerk said that a representative of ICE was “here in the court . . . [unintelligible] to, to visit the lockup,” according to a transcript included in the indictment.

AD

AD

“That’s fine,” Joseph responded, according to the transcript. “I’m not gonna allow them to come in here.” She added, “But he’s been released on this,” in apparent reference to an assistant district attorney dismissing the fugitive charge against the man moments earlier.

The excerpts of the court transcript in the indictment suggest that the drug charges would be the subject of a later pretrial conference. The judge approved that course of action.

At another point in the April 2018 proceedings, the suspect’s attorney said his client was not the person ICE was seeking. “ICE is going to pick him up if he walks out the front door,” the defense attorney said.

AD

Joseph and MacGregor were scheduled to be arraigned in federal court Thursday. Joseph was suspended from her judgeship without pay on Thursday.

AD

The office of Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R) expressed support for Joseph’s suspension. “Governor Baker believes no one should obstruct federal law enforcement officials trying to do their jobs and supports the Supreme Judicial Court’s decision to suspend Judge Joseph without pay,” according to a prepared statement from Lizzy Guyton, Baker’s spokeswoman. “The Baker-Polito Administration has filed legislation to allow court officials as well as law-enforcement to work with federal immigration officials to detain dangerous individuals.”

Joseph, MacGregor and their attorneys could not be reached for comment Thursday by The Washington Post.