A Newton judge accused of helping an undocumented immigrant evade federal immigration custody in April 2018 had a hearing before the Massachusetts Commission on Judicial Conduct on Monday.

Judge Shelley Joseph allegedly allowed Jose Medina-Perez, a Dominican national, to escape out a downstairs back door while an ICE agent waited in the lobby to detain him. Medina-Perez was facing a fugitive from justice charge on a warrant out of Pennsylvania along with two misdemeanor drug charges.

“This case is about the integrity, impartiality and independence of the Massachusetts judiciary,” said Judith Fabricant, special counsel for the commission.

“Judge Joseph that day was trying to respect the rights of everybody before her,” said Elizabeth Mulvey, Joseph’s attorney.

Joseph was first indicted on federal charges of obstruction of justice in 2019 under the first Trump administration. After admitting to certain facts, those charges were dropped under the Biden administration, and her case was referred to the commission.

Monday’s hearing started with a viewing at Newton District Court, with Denis J. McInerney, the hearing officer appointed by the Supreme Judicial Court for this case. Fabricant and Mulvey then presented opening statements in Suffolk Superior Court.

The defense claims Joseph had nothing to do with the conspiracy to help Medina-Perez escape, laying blame on David Jellinek, who was his defense lawyer.

“Before Judge Joseph even knew that David Jellinek was in the courthouse, he had already made a deal with court officer Wes MacGregor,” Mulvey said. “He had this deal that if he could get his client back downstairs, the court officer would let him out the sallyport door,” Mulvey said.

Jellinek was the first to take the stand. In his testimony, he described feeling as though he had Joseph’s permission to bring Medina-Perez downstairs to help him sneak out.

“He told the judge that if his client could go back downstairs, he thought he could get him released through the back,” Fabricant said. “The judge said something to the effect of, ‘Yes, that’s what we’ll do.’”

Joseph’s team said otherwise.

“Nobody told her that Medina-Perez had gone out the back door. She knew nothing about it,” Mulvey said.

Much of this debate stems from what exactly was said when the court recording was shut off for 52 seconds. Fabricant asked Jellinek why he requested to speak to Joseph off the record.

“I wanted to go off the record because I knew that the next phase of our conversation and what I was going to suggest or ask for as a defense lawyer was perhaps right on the edge of acceptable or appropriate,” Jellinek said.

The hearing could last several days. The Commission on Judicial Conduct has the power to recommend discipline but does not have the power to remove Joseph from the bench.

Chilly air, wildfire smoke and scattered showers will shroud Massachusetts Monday before more widespread rain comes later in the week.

While no air quality alerts were issued by the National Weather Service as of 6 a.m. on Monday, smoke from fires in Canada was still in the atmosphere statewide. Air quality alerts were issued for parts of New Hampshire near the border.

The air quality was at a “moderate” level and considered “unhealthy for sensitive groups” in parts of Eastern, Central and Western Massachusetts and on the Cape & the Islands as of 6 a.m., according to data from the DEP map. Those affected should take precautions in spending too long outside.

Temperatures were cool in the mid to upper 50s after sunrise on Monday morning. They’re expected to reach just the 60s and high 70s throughout the day, with the warmest areas in Western Massachusetts.

Under the overcast skies, there’s a chance for scattered showers statewide during the daytime and into Monday night, forecasters said.

This comes before more widespread, heavy rain and thunder move into the state on Tuesday. Forecasters are eyeing up to two inches of rain that could fall throughout the day on Tuesday and bring some street flooding.

Steve Kerrigan, the chairman of the Massachusetts Democratic Party, said his party needs to listen to voters more, because it cost them elections in during the 2024 campaign cycle.

The headline on a Washington Post column last week summed up the identity crisis preoccupying Democrats these days: “LET US COUNT THE 3,515 WAYS IN WHICH DEMOCRATS ARE LAME.” 

The piece went on to compile a list of the multitude of advice Democrats are getting, things like “go on the offensive,” “find plausible candidates,” “sound less judgmental,” “rethink the words they use,” “take a ‘specific and granular’ approach,” and “nominate someone who is ‘more mainstream.’”

What are Democrats doing different?

WBZ-TV asked Massachusetts Democratic party chairman Kerrigan what he takes away from it all. 

“It’s not surprising to me that that article or those lists come out of Washington,” he said. “The word that matters most to me is win. And if you look at all of the elections that have taken place since November of 2024, Democrats have outperformed and, in many cases, we have flipped seats from Republicans to Democrats in state legislatures all across the country.”

What are they doing differently in from the debacle of the fall of 2024?  

“We’re continuing to organize and talk to people where they are and, frankly, listen more, which is what our party, and any party who wishes to win elections needs to do. You have to be willing to talk to the voters and to listen,” says Kerrigan. “What we didn’t do in the wake of 2016 was listen to why a Trump voter existed in the first place, how he got elected in the first place. I really think we fell down on the job. We took data points throughout time, the midterms of ’18, the win in ’20 and the no-red-wave in ’22 and figured out that we had figured it out, when, in fact, we hadn’t.”

What have they figured out now? The Trump voters “feel like they did not have their voice heard,” Kerrigan said. 

“We’ve got a Washington, DC [where] the last time they fought for or increased the minimum wage, my former boss, Ted Kennedy led that battle, and he died in August of 2009. You’ve got a Congress that doesn’t pass a budget through regular order since 1997. The American people are frustrated, and they’re showing it by saying ‘You’re in power, we now are going to try the other guy,’ even though they knew what the other guy was up to,” Kerrigan said.

Should Maura Healey re-elected?

On the local front, Kerrigan was asked about recent polling showing only 37% of Massachusetts voters believe Gov. Maura Healey deserves re-election next year. He waved off that results and cited other pols that are more favorable for the incumbent.

“Governor Healey is going to earn re-election because she understands Massachusetts people need someone who’s going to fight to lower costs for them, going to fight to increase housing opportunities for them, going to fight back against Donald Trump. And frankly, neither Mike Kennealy nor Brian Shortsleeve [the two announced GOP candidates for governor] are willing to do any of that,” Kerrigan said.

Kerrigan also discussed the impact President Trump and his policies are likely to have on the campaign here, and gave his reaction to recent reporting on the handling of then-President Joe Biden’s decision to seek re-election. 

You can watch the entire conversation here, and join us every Sunday morning at 8:30 a.m. for more discussion with political and policy newsmakers on the weekend edition of “Keller At Large.” Next week’s guest will be Massachusetts GOP chair Amy Carnevale.