The arrest final month of a Massachusetts man by a federal immigration agent amid his jury trial in Boston Municipal Courtroom set off a authorized and political standoff between state and federal legislation enforcers.
Particulars in court docket recordings and paperwork increase questions on federal interference in native instances, and what prosecutors and state police knew concerning the arrest earlier than it occurred.
Right here’s what we all know:
How did this saga start?
Wilson Martell-Lebron is a 49-year-old Saugus resident who labored in demolition. He was standing trial over allegations that he misrepresented his id and citizenship standing on a driver’s license software.
The felony case had been grinding alongside for 5 years. (In July 2023, Massachusetts turned one in every of a number of states that permits individuals with out authorized standing within the U.S. to acquire driver’s licenses.)
The day earlier than the trial was presupposed to go to the jury, an ICE agent grabbed Martell-Lebron as he left an look on the downtown courthouse.
The Suffolk County district lawyer had tapped ICE Particular Agent Brian Sullivan as a witness of their case towards Martell-Lebron. However in the midst of the trial, Sullivan placed on a special hat, referred to as in backup to the courthouse and whisked Martell-Lebron away in a black SUV.
District Lawyer Kevin Hayden was furious, in accordance with his public feedback, as was have been the protection lawyer and the choose within the case.
Then, it got here out in court docket proceedings that no less than three of Hayden’s assistant DAs and two state police troopers knew ICE deliberate to make an arrest — and determined to not inform the court docket or probe for additional particulars.
The arrest despatched the case in a wildly new path
The morning after the arrest, Jack Lucy, the assistant DA prosecuting Martell-Lebron — and the state troopers — have been referred to as to the witness stand to reply for his or her communications with ICE.
The troopers have been summoned first. They defined they’d been working with ICE agent Sullivan on the Martell-Lebron case since earlier than the criticism was filed in 2020.
Trooper David Dumont testified that Sullivan informed prosecutors concerning the plans to nab Martell-Lebron. Dumont confronted questioning by protection lawyer Murat Erkan, who referred to conversations between Sullivan, Lucy and assistant DA Matt Liber.
Erkan: “Particular Agent Sullivan knowledgeable ADAs Liber and Lucy that his plan was to abscond with the defendant on March twenty seventh of the 12 months 2025 when he left the courthouse?”
A lawyer for Dumont objected. The choose overruled.
Dumont: “Sure. That was my understanding.”
Dumont additionally learn from a textual content message alternate he had with the opposite state trooper and Sullivan on the day of the arrest. Amid jokes about Elon Musk and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, the texts illuminate Sullivan’s plans to find Martell-Lebron.
Inside hours, Sullivan texts: “Your ADA is just not gonna like me.” He tells the troopers Martell-Lebron “is in federal custody.”
ADA Jack Lucy faces questioning
On the stand, assistant DA Jack Lucy admitted that Sullivan — the day earlier than Martell-Lebron was arrested — revealed ICE meant to detain him.
Lucy: “Agent Sullivan acknowledged, basically out of the blue, that he meant to take the defendant into custody, however he didn’t specify when that may be.”
Lawyer Erkan grilled Lucy about why he didn’t press the ICE agent for extra particulars.
Erkan: “Did you ask for clarification of ICE Agent Sullivan concerning the timing of that plan?”
Lucy: “I didn’t.”
Erkan: “Okay. Did you say, ‘ICE Agent Sullivan, maintain on. You aren’t planning to deport this man in the midst of trial, are you?’ ”
Lucy: “I didn’t.”
Erkan: “ Did you inform protection counsel of that dialog?”
Lucy: “I didn’t.”
Erkan: “Did you inform the choose of that dialog?”
Lucy: “I didn’t.”
Lucy stated he’d sought steering from his supervisor, Assistant DA Amanda Corin, and requested if he ought to inquire about Sullivan’s plans. “The reply was no,” Lucy stated.
Lucy additionally testified that he believed the arrest of Martell-Lebron would occur after the trial — a declare that seems to be at odds with Trooper Dumont’s testimony and a discovery submitting by the DA’s workplace.
Why didn’t the ADAs inform the court docket about ICE’s plan?
Enter Maria Romero, chief authorized counsel for the Suffolk County DA. In court docket, she informed Boston Municipal Courtroom Choose Mark Summerville it might have been unlawful for the DA’s workplace to tell him of Sullivan’s plan.
“You requested us whether or not we must always have informed the court docket or a court docket officer,” she stated.
Summerville interjected to say “not a court docket officer — me, the choose.”
Romero replied, “We could possibly be probably violating federal legislation in that we could also be hindering their lawful apprehension of the detainee.”
Summerville was not pleased with that reply: “I reject that. I reject that wholeheartedly.”
What did DA Hayden know?
Whereas assistant district attorneys have been deciding what to do with information of ICE’s plans, it’s unclear whether or not their high boss was within the loop. A spokesman for Hayden’s workplace, James Borghesani, stated the workplace had “no information of ICE’s timing for arrest.”
The DA’s workplace stated it tried to get Martell-Lebron again into the courthouse to complete his trial, however ICE refused to conform.
The protection had warned that Martell-Lebron could possibly be apprehended with out court docket intervention
On Jan. 23, Martell-Lebron petitioned the Supreme Judicial Courtroom and warned that an arrest could possibly be imminent.
Erkan wrote within the SJC petition: “Underneath the present federal regime, ICE brokers stalk our halls of justice to tug members of the family away from this nation, putting abnormal treatments out of attain. Mr. Martell-Lebron is an undocumented immigrant. If this Courtroom doesn’t intervene, he will probably be snatched away earlier than he can vindicate his trial rights, not to mention his appellate rights. Absent this Courtroom’s intervention, the denial of his rights will probably be irreversible.”
The SJC didn’t take up the case. However within the proceedings earlier than Choose Summerville, emails revealed that Lucy flagged the submitting for ICE agent Sullivan:
“Chances are you’ll have an interest to learn the connected temporary the defendant filed … He admits he’s ‘an undocumented immigrant’ … He argues that he should not have to look at trial as a result of ICE will detain and deport him.”
WBUR requested for particulars on why Lucy despatched the message to Sullivan. The DA’s spokesman in an e mail stated, “It was pertinent as a result of Sullivan was anticipated to testify that the defendant held a passport in a special title than he submitted to the RMV, which was on the coronary heart of the forgery/false paperwork costs.”
The choose’s rulings
After listening to two days of testimony, Summerville dismissed the case towards Martell-Lebron — a significant win for the protection. Nonetheless, Martell-Lebron stays in ICE custody.
Summerville didn’t sanction the prosecutors, however as an alternative criticized the DA’s workplace.
“ I am not right here to harm a younger ADA who’s studying a really troublesome career,” Summerville stated in court docket.
“I am discovering that they didn’t participate within the elimination of Mr. Lebron, or help in his elimination. And albeit, I blame the district lawyer’s workplace extra for the dearth of coaching than these younger ADAs.”
However Summerville held Particular Agent Sullivan in contempt, lashing out at him for failing to look on the listening to and for ICE’s refusal to convey Martell-Lebron again to court docket to complete the trial.
U.S. Lawyer for Massachusetts makes a transfer
The proceedings earlier than Choose Summerville have been lower brief when the U.S. Division of Justice stepped in.
U.S. Lawyer for Massachusetts Leah Foley’s workplace argued the case ought to be tossed as a result of state officers lack authority to prosecute federal brokers doing their job.
The state lawyer normal, Andrea Campbell, then stated her workplace wouldn’t disagree with the U.S. lawyer’s petition. And on April 14, the contempt case towards ICE agent Sullivan was dismissed.
Campbell’s choice could have headed off a protracted authorized battle with the feds over ICE arrests. Over the previous a number of months, the Trump administration has attacked Massachusetts political leaders, accusing them of refusing to permit native legislation enforcers to work with ICE.
Gov. Maura Healey has countered repeatedly that Massachusetts is just not a sanctuary state, and that state authorities usually collaborate with federal brokers on felony issues.
The Martell-Lebron case reveals how sophisticated these relationships may be.
What occurs now?
Probably nothing. Matt Liber, the opposite ADA on the Martell-Lebron case, didn’t testify, and protection legal professionals say the abrupt finish to the case means some questions will go unanswered.
DA Hayden stated he’d weigh felony obstruction costs towards ICE Particular Agent Sullivan — prompted by Choose Summerville referring that call to him. And Hayden might nonetheless act. However that is unlikely to occur, stated Carl Williams, a legislation professor at Cornell College who attended the listening to after Martell-Lebron’s arrest.
“Is Hayden going to go towards Trump and have him be like, ‘I am gonna come to Boston!’ ?” Williams stated. “He does not need that warmth.”
Shira Diner, president of the Massachusetts Affiliation of Felony Protection Legal professionals, stated she hopes Hayden will handle any potential misconduct inside his workplace.
“There was a lot proof that got here up at that listening to,” Diner stated, “that the district attorneys concerned on this case [and] their supervisors knew that [the arrest] was a risk, that this was possibly going to occur throughout this trial.
“The individuals of Suffolk County have a proper to understand how their elected district lawyer goes to method these conditions sooner or later.”
Wilson Martell-Lebron, in the meantime, sits in a Plymouth County lockup, awaiting elimination proceedings. Finally, the authorized questions and intense disputes his arrest prompted might have little, if any, bearing on what occurs to him going ahead.
