Shelley Joseph Reprimanded

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court publicly reprimanded Newton District Court Judge Shelley Joseph on September 10, 2026, over her conduct during a 2018 hearing involving defendant Oscar Manuel Peguero, who was facing state drug possession charges and wanted by ICE. Joseph ordered the ICE officer present to remain outside the courtroom, then ordered the courtroom's audio recording turned off for 52 seconds — a direct violation of state court recording rules — while conferring with defense counsel. She then granted defense counsel's request that Peguero be allowed to "go back downstairs" rather than exit through the public courtroom door where federal agents were waiting; a court officer, Wesley MacGregor, used his own security key to let Peguero out a rear door instead.

The SJC did not find that Joseph knew of or authorized the specific plan to walk Peguero out the back of the building, and the reprimand explicitly stated its purpose was to make clear "what she is — and is not — being reprimanded for." What she was reprimanded for was creating "an appearance of impropriety" through her own instructions to cut the recording and her own proposed workaround to keep Peguero out of ICE's hands — conduct a sitting judge controls directly, regardless of what her court officer and the defense attorney did afterward.

Federal obstruction of justice charges against Joseph were dropped in 2022 after she agreed to refer the matter to the state's own judicial conduct body, which is the process that produced this reprimand four years later. She remains a sitting judge, currently reassigned to an administrative role rather than a courtroom, and received no suspension or fine beyond the public reprimand itself.