Hayden takes aim at judge for dismissing case after defendant's arrest by immigration agents

Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden plans to appeal a judge's decision to dismiss the case of a man arrested and detained by federal immigration agents midtrial.

In a fiery statement issued Thursday, Hayden took aim at a number of Judge Mark Summerville's actions during and immediately following the trial. That includes a decision to find an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, Brian Sullivan, in contempt for arresting Wilson Martell-Lebron; for failing to provide a written order demanding Martell-Lebron's return to state court; for suggesting state prosecutors knew ICE was going to arrest the defendant midtrial; and for asserting the DA's office had a duty to report ICE's intentions.

"This Office finds that criminal charges based upon Judge Summerville’s patently illegal contempt finding and referral are not warranted," Hayden wrote in the 10-page statement. "Additionally, there was no factual or legal basis to dismiss Wilson Martell-Lebron’s criminal case for prosecutorial misconduct."

The trial court declined to comment on Hayden's allegations Thursday.

Martell-Lebron, of Saugus, was on trial in state court answering charges he lied on a driver's license application about his citizenship. Sullivan had been called to testify in that case, but later returned to arrest Martell-Lebron. That drew a sharp rebuke from the judge, who found Sullivan in contempt of court for failing to bring the defendant back for the rest of his trial. He referred the contempt charge to Hayden's office for prosecution.

That drew a strong response from the state's top federal officer, U.S. Attorney Leah Foley, who said state interference in immigration enforcement "would not be tolerated." She successfully moved the contempt charge to federal court, where it was dismissed.

Hayden's office has come under heavy scrutiny following the dismissal. It came to light in court testimony that the DA's staff knew of ICE's intentions to arrest Martell-Lebron, but did nothing to alert the court. Hayden's office has said they had no knowledge of the arrest's timing before it happened.

The assistant DAs on the case told a judge they knew Martell-Lebron would be arrested, but not that the detention would come midtrial. But a Massachusetts State Trooper testified that prosecutors did know about the arrest's timing.

In his Thursday Statement, Hayden asked federal authorities at the Department of Justice and Homeland Security to investigate ICE's decision to arrest Martell-Lebron while he was on trial in state court.

"We do not know why ICE decided to take the unprecedent step of arresting the defendant midtrial, interfering with a state criminal prosecution and preventing this office from holding the defendant accountable, but it certainly was not to protect the public," he wrote.