Judge reprimanded after detainee fled the court

Filed 1h ago · Via Courthouse News · The Buffoon Desk

THIS STORY IS SCORED

Investigations

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: Rijksmuseum · CC0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Massachusetts' highest court has adopted a public reprimand against Judge Shelley Richmond Joseph, following a recommendation from the Commission on Judicial Conduct, for creating an appearance of impropriety and failing to comply with the law.

During proceedings involving a detainee, the judge asked to go off the record and has not adequately explained why or what was said during that gap. A court officer subsequently helped the detainee escape through a sallyport.

Judge Joseph maintains she had no knowledge of any escape plan, but because the relevant exchange was never recorded, the commission and now the state's high court found that claim impossible to verify.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

A judge asking to go off the record right before someone walks out a back door is the kind of coincidence that would make any small-town clerk raise an eyebrow. The reprimand doesn't say she planned it, only that she can't prove she didn't, because she made sure there was nothing on paper to check. That's a strange position for someone whose whole job is making sure there's a record.

Source: Read the original at Courthouse News → Scored: Investigations · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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