photo #8210925

A Boston judge who allegedly let a twice-deported illegal immigrant slip out a side door of her courtroom to avoid ICE agents may soon face a brutal punishment.Judge Shelley Joseph, who now serves as a Boston Municipal Court judge, faces removal from the bench when she appears in Suffolk County Superior Court on June 9 for a public hearing into the April 2018 incident, the SWR reports.She has been accused of allowing Jose Medina-Perez, an illegal immigrant originally from the Dominican Republic, walk out a back door of the Newton District Courthouse to avoid getting arrested by the ICE agents on duty.Joseph was indicted months later by former US Attorney Andrew Lelling - a Trump appointee - but those charges were dropped in 2022 when she 'agreed to refer herself' to the Massachusetts Commission on Judicial Conduct.In a scathing 112-page report, the commission declared she engaged in 'willful judicial misconduct' and failed 'to cooperate and be candid and honest with judicial disciplinary authorities'.It recommended at the time that the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court appoint a hearing officer - likely a retired judge - to 'preside over a public hearing'.The hearing will now mirror an actual trial, in which both attorneys for the judge and the commission present evidence to a hearing officer who will determine whether Joseph can keep her $207,855 a year job.But it remained unclear on Tuesday whether Joseph's attorney, Thomas Hoopes, will move forward with the hearing - or strike a deal with the state beforehand.