Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden has publicly criticized Boston Municipal Court Judge Mark Summerville for his ruling regarding the midtrial arrest of a defendant by an ICE agent.
In a recent case, Judge Summerville found ICE Agent Brian Sullivan in contempt for arresting Wilson Martell-Lebron outside the courthouse during his jury trial.
This contempt ruling came after Judge Summerville dismissed Martell-Lebron’s criminal case, citing egregious prosecutorial misconduct by the prosecution team.
Following this, the judge referred his contempt ruling to the Suffolk DA’s Office for potential prosecution of Sullivan.
However, Hayden announced on Thursday that his office has concluded that Summerville’s contempt finding lacks both a factual and legal basis, as it is also barred by the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution.
In his statement, Hayden noted, “Therefore, this Office finds that criminal charges based upon Judge Summerville’s patently illegal contempt finding and referral are not warranted.”
He further asserted that there was no substantiated reason to dismiss Martell-Lebron’s charges for prosecutorial misconduct.
Following the DA’s review, the Suffolk DA’s Office has already filed a notice of intent to appeal Judge Summerville’s dismissal of Martell-Lebron’s case.
In addition, Hayden has called on the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security to investigate ICE’s actions surrounding this incident.
He emphasized, “Although the Commonwealth lacks a factual or legal basis to prosecute Officer Sullivan, we do not condone ICE’s conduct in this case.”
Hayden asserted that the actions taken by ICE during the trial disrupted the prosecution’s ability to hold the defendant accountable, stating, “The unprofessional and unnecessary detention of the defendant midtrial in this case undermines those important goals.”
The incident traces back to 2020 when Martell-Lebron faced charges for falsely applying for a license and for forgery of an RMV document.
On the very day his trial commenced last month, Martell-Lebron was apprehended by ICE agents just outside the courthouse.
The following day, ICE failed to return Martell-Lebron to court, prompting the DA’s Office to request a writ of habeas corpus for the defendant.
Despite the allowance of this writ, it was never issued by Judge Summerville, which Hayden described as “inexplicable” given the statutory requirements.
Ultimately, Judge Summerville permitted Martell-Lebron’s dismissal of charges with prejudice and ruled Sullivan in contempt of court.
Hayden contended that Judge Summerville’s finding of contempt was based on a flawed assumption that only ICE’s actions led to the defendant’s absence from trial.
“In reality, Judge Summerville himself also prevented the defendant from being present at his trial by refusing to issue a writ of habeas corpus for the defendant after he was taken into ICE custody,” Hayden said.
The DA also argued that the foundational premises for Summerville’s contempt ruling were flawed, pointing out that the Supremacy Clause prohibits prosecuting Sullivan for carrying out duties under federal law.
Furthermore, Hayden criticized the improper dismissal of the case, noting that Summerville had established that the assigned prosecutors had engaged in no misconduct, but instead claimed misconduct on the part of two Massachusetts State Police sergeants and Officer Sullivan, incorrectly including them in the ‘prosecution team.’
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