A hearing officer is recommending that a state disciplinary panel issue a public reprimand for Judge Shelley Joseph, finding she didn’t know about an “escape plan” for a defendant who evaded immigration authorities in her Newton courtroom in 2018, while faulting her for creating an “appearance of impropriety” during the incident that thrust her into the national spotlight amid President Trump’s first-term immigration crackdown.

The findings were contained in a 117-page report released Thursday by the state Commission on Judicial Conduct, marking the final chapter of a roughly seven-year legal saga that saw Joseph at one point facing federal criminal charges that were ultimately dropped.

Hearing officer Denis J. McInerney wrote that Joseph should be publicly reprimanded as she “ina

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