Acting on behalf of the district’s three life-tenured judges, Chief Judge John J. McConnell Jr. chose Niki Kuckes, a law professor at Roger Williams University and a former clerk of Justice Antonin Scalia, to investigate the issue. A graduate of Yale Law School, Ms. Kuckes has written academic articles on due process and grand juries. Ms. Kuckes will write a report that will inform the judges’ decision about whether to open “formal disciplinary proceedings.” If the court finds that Mr. Bolan engaged in misconduct, it could impose punishments that range from a reprimand or fines to disbarment, according to the court’s local rules.
The Rhode Island incident is the latest in a string of immigration enforcement cases in which judges have expressed anger with administration lawyers, particularly as they have provided information from D.H.S. officials. Federal judges in Washington D.C. and Boston have said the administration violated their orders concerning deportation flights. In Minnesota, a judge held an administration lawyer in contempt when Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is part of D.H.S., did not promptly return immigration documents to a detainee as ordered. And on Thursday, another federal judge found that D.H.S. guidance violated a court order limiting warrantless arrests in the District of Columbia.
In the Rhode Island case, Judge DuBose has repeatedly asked Mr. Bolan to have D.H.S. take down a press release posted online that strongly implies she knowingly released someone accused of homicide. Her court’s chief deputy clerk has said that D.H.S.’s rhetoric “risks inciting threats against members of the judiciary” and “undermines respect for the rule of law.” But despite repeated requests from Mr. Bolan and his colleagues for it to be taken down, the page was still live as of Thursday afternoon.
Mr. Gomez faces charges for a 2021 killing in the Dominican Republic, according to an arrest warrant that the government filed with the Rhode Island court. When Judge DuBose was made aware of the charges, she called another hearing and ordered him to be detained again. On Thursday, the government said in a court filing that Mr. Gomez’s attorney had said that he would report to the Boston ICE Field Office by Tuesday evening. But, according to the filing, he had not shown up, and two days later, the government has not been able to locate him.
Melanie Shapiro, Mr. Gomez’s attorney, did not respond to a request for comment. In court filings, she has said that her client married a U.S. citizen last year and is seeking both legal immigration status and asylum. The filings dispute the state assault charge against Mr. Gomez that led to his initial arrest, stating that it was based on “unsubstantiated allegations.” In its own filings, D.H.S. has said that, other than the assault charge, it has no evidence “of any actual or alleged criminal conduct” by Mr. Gomez inside the United States since he arrived “in approximately 2022.”
