A Boston judge accused of assisting an unauthorized immigrant in evading US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2018 is scheduled to face a misconduct hearing.

Judge Shelley M. Richmond Joseph is facing a civil misconduct allegation in connection with the incident in which she reportedly aided Jose Medina-Perez, a Dominican national who had already been deported twice, in exiting Newton District Court undetected.

Medina-Perez, who is forbidden from reentering the United States until 2027, appeared in court on drug possession charges and a fugitive warrant from Pennsylvania. Fox News said that an ICE agent was waiting outside the courthouse to take him into custody.

Joseph is scheduled to appear on Monday in Suffolk Superior Court in Boston, where the misconduct hearing is now underway. Presiding Judge Denis McInerney noted that he will produce a report explaining his findings and recommendations after the hearings are completed.

At the start of the session, Joseph’s counsel emphasized that her client had not been proven guilty of any crime.

“If you were to walk down the street and take a survey of the people you meet, 100% of them would tell you Judge Joseph let an illegal immigrant out the back door of the district court,” the attorney representing her stated in her opening remarks. “Fifty percent of them would say she’s a criminal and should go to jail. Fifty percent would call her a folk hero for what she gave. But she definitely did it.

“It has become such a part of local lore in Boston that the media, for the most part, have dropped the niceties of alleged or charged, and they report and make references to this incident as if a dozen people had seen Judge Joseph get off the bench, escorted the defendant to the door, gave him a hug and wished him Godspeed,” the attorney for her said.

David Jellinek, Medina-Perez’s attorney, has also testified on cross-examination. According to Fox, he signed an immunity agreement with federal officials in exchange for testifying against Joseph.

Federal prosecutors claimed that Joseph instructed a court clerk to notify the ICE agent present to wait in the lobby, suggesting that if the defendant was freed, he would depart via the courtroom entrance into the lobby. Later, Joseph reportedly told the courtroom clerk to “go off the record for a moment,” which caused the courtroom audio recording to turn off for 52 seconds.

When the audio record was turned back on, Joseph announced that she would free the defendant. Federal prosecutors said in court documents that Medina-Perez’s defense counsel requested to meet with the defendant downstairs, to which Joseph replied, “That’s great. “Of course.”