A Boston Municipal Court judge has launched an inquiry after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained a man in the middle of his criminal trial — allegedly with the advance knowledge of the case’s prosecutors.
Wilson Martell-Lebron appeared Thursday in the Edward W. Brooke Courthouse for the first day of his trial on charges that he provided false information on a license application. But during a trial lunch break, ICE agent Brian Sullivan told prosecutors Jack Lucy and Matt Liber that his agency intended to apprehend Martell-Lebron, State Police Trooper David Dumont testified at a hearing Friday.
Later Thursday afternoon, as Martell-Lebron was leaving court, plainclothes ICE agents detained him, placed him in an unmarked SUV, and drove off, according to defense attorneys and video of the arrest’s aftermath.
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Murat Erkan, Martell-Lebron’s defense attorney, said Lucy and Liber never informed him or the judge that ICE planned to arrest Martell-Lebron. Erkan alleged the prosecutors were “aware of an attempt to prevent [Martell-Lebron] from exercising his Constitutional rights and to defy a court order.”
“Our position is that this is obstructing justice,” Erkan said.
Boston Municipal Court Judge Mark Summerville held an emergency hearing on Friday to determine what authorities knew about the detention, and the hearing is slated to continue Monday. Suffolk prosecutors said they would seek a Supreme Judicial Court order to halt the proceedings.
James Borghesani, a spokesperson for the Suffolk district attorney’s office, said in a statement that the office was “dismayed and surprised” that the case was interrupted by the apprehension of Martell-Lebron. He said the office asked ICE to return the defendant to court.
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“Any claim that we were aware of an attempt to prevent Mr. Martell-Lebron from exercising his right to a trial is false,” the statement said. “It was and still is our intention to try Mr. Martell-Lebron and hold him accountable for the crimes alleged in the complaint. Federal authorities should not have detained him and interfered with our efforts to hold him accountable.”
In recent days, ICE has arrested hundreds of people across Massachusetts, sending shockwaves through the state’s immigrant communities. On Wednesday, thousands of people gathered to protest the arrest of Rümeysa Öztürk, a Turkish Tufts University PhD student here on a student visa who had expressed pro-Palestinian views in the campus newspaper last year.
Summerville was supposed to preside over the second day of Martell-Lebron’s trial on Friday morning. Instead, with the defendant unexpectedly in federal custody, Summerville called a hearing to find who knew of ICE’s plans and when they knew it.
“You were told that ICE agents were coming to court by that agent?” Summerville asked Dumont.
“Yes, he said he had some agents coming by,” Dumont said. “It was more or less understood what they were coming here to do.”
“And what was that?” Summerville asked.
“They were going to grab the defendant,” Dumont said.
According to Erkan, ICE had alleged that Lebron-Martell is a national of the Dominican Republic using an alias.
Dumont testified that before the trial’s lunch break on Thursday, Sullivan verbally told him, trooper James Thompson, Lucy, and Liber that his agency intended to detain Martell-Lebron.
Thompson testified that Sullivan texted him on Wednesday, suggesting he had informed Lucy of a plan to “grab [Martell-Lebron] on the way out.”
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“I emailed Jack this morning but haven’t heard anything back,” Sullivan texted Thompson, according to Thompson’s testimony.
At that time, it was not clear if Sullivan knew exactly when Martell-Lebron was scheduled to appear in court, Thompson said.
Assistant District Attorney Christopher Boutin asked Dumont whether Sullivan specified exactly when ICE planned to arrest Martell-Lebron, and whether he or the prosecutors expected the trial to be interrupted. Dumont said he understood from his conversation with Sullivan that ICE intended to arrest the defendant after Thursday’s trial session, but that no details were discussed and that Lucy and Liber appeared to believe the trial would continue as planned.
Boutin also highlighted texts suggesting that the district attorney’s office did not approve of ICE’s plans.
“Your [assistant district attorney] is not gonna like me,” Sullivan texted Dumont after the arrest, according to Dumont’s testimony.
In 2017, the state Supreme Judicial Court ruled that state and local law enforcement agencies do not have legal authority to hold people based solely on civil immigration detainers. Federal authorities may still make those arrests on their own authority.
Legal advocates have long criticized ICE for arresting people at or outside courthouses, saying it impedes the local justice process. In 2019, then-Suffolk district attorney Rachael Rollins and Middlesex District Attorney Marian T. Ryan sued in federal court to stop immigration agents from making civil arrests at state courthouses. They dropped the suit after President Biden took office and limited those apprehensions.
Anthony Benedetti, chief counsel for the Committee for Public Counsel Services, the state’s public defender agency, said in a statement Friday that ICE apprehension of anyone awaiting a trial constitutes a violation of their right to due process.
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“Trials exist to pursue justice, but that process is disrupted when key participants are removed from the courtroom before a verdict can be reached,” he said. “The justice system cannot function effectively under these conditions, and it hurts everyone involved.”
Erkan also hammered Dumont and Thompson for communicating Friday morning, despite being under a sequestration order for the hearing on what occurred. Both troopers initially said they had not communicated with each other since the hearing began, but then acknowledged exchanging brief texts after being told to review their phones.
“Have they said anything to you? This is insane,” Thompson texted Dumont at 11:14 a.m.
Both testified that they had forgotten about that text. Summerville seemed unconvinced.
“You forgot about a text message that you sent to Trooper Dumont after 11 a.m. this morning?” Summerville asked Thompson.
“Yes, your honor, I forgot,” Thompson said.
It is unclear where Martell-Lebron is now; ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But testimony from Thompson suggested he may be out of state.
“Any claim that we were aware of an attempt to prevent Mr. Martell-Lebron from exercising his right to a trial is false,” the statement said. “It was and still is our intention to try Mr. Martell-Lebron and hold him accountable for the crimes alleged in the complaint. Federal authorities should not have detained him and interfered with our efforts to hold him accountable.”
Erkan said in an interview that after leaving court Thursday, he saw plainclothes ICE agents running down New Chardon Street by the side of the courthouse. The defense team followed and saw them take Martell-Lebron into custody and place him into a Dodge SUV.
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“We asked them to identify themselves and to indicate where they were taking our client,” Erkan said. “They refused to answer those questions.”
Summerville said he has issued an order for ICE to return Martell-Lebron to court to stand trial, and that he intends to call agents involved in the detention to testify on Monday.
“What this was all about is what was known and what actions were taken, not just by the ADAs but by the troopers and ICE agents,” Summerville said.
Dan Glaun can be reached at dan.glaun@globe.com. Follow him @dglaun.