BOSTON — On Monday afternoon in Cambridge, a man matching every line of a 2021 police warning a Massachusetts judge waved away allegedly emptied a rifle at civilian drivers on Memorial Drive. Two innocent men are still fighting for their lives.

The judge was Suffolk Superior Court Judge Janet Sanders. The defendant was Tyler Brown. And we know what she said when she gave him half the sentence prosecutors demanded, because NBC10 Boston got the audio: "Mr. Brown, I do realize that I'm taking a chance on you. I just pray that my intuitions are right."

A Boston cop and a probation officer both told Sanders, on the record, that Brown would hurt someone if let out. "If Mr. Tyler Brown gets out, he will hurt or worse kill someone," the officer testified. Sanders heard them — and did it anyway. Prosecutors asked for 10 to 12 years for opening fire on Boston Police. Sanders gave him five to six. Brown served the short sentence, persuaded a parole board to spring him, and not long after, allegedly shot up Memorial Drive.

Boston Municipal Court Judge Lisa Grant sentenced two-time bank robber Bampumim Teixeira to 364 days in 2016 — one day short of the federal deportation threshold. Teixeira walked out in nine months and murdered Dr. Richard Field and Dr. Lina Bolanos in their South Boston penthouse. Tied up. Throats slit.

Last month Grant set bail at $1,500 for a half-naked sex offender charged in four separate states who cornered a 13-year-old boy in the bathroom of the Charlestown 99 — then followed him and his friends to a playground.

Twelve days later he dragged a woman from her car in Mission Hill and rammed a Boston Police cruiser. Officer Nicholas O'Malley shot and killed him — and is now the first Boston cop in 30 years to face manslaughter charges for an on-duty shooting.

Anthony Lopes, 19, shot a 16-year-old girl in the face at close range during a fight over an $800 designer jacket. She survived with a shattered jaw. The court gave him 2.5 to 3 years. He'll be on the street before her face is finished healing.

Roxbury BMC Judge David Poole set bail at $1,000 and $500 for two Rhode Island men who joined the October 2025 street takeover, beat Boston cops, and destroyed a department cruiser. Prosecutors had asked for $20,000 and $15,000. Even Governor Healey publicly condemned the call.

Newton District Court Judge Shelley Joseph was on the bench in 2018 when Jose Medina-Perez, a twice-deported Dominican national, escaped out a back door while an ICE officer waited in the hallway. The judicial conduct commission recommended a public reprimand last November. Joseph is still on the bench.

In March 2025, BMC Judge Mark Summerville held an ICE agent in contempt for arresting a defendant mid-trial. A federal court later vacated it.

Sanders cut Brown's sentence in half. The Healey-stocked parole board handed him the rest — a board that has voted to release at least 60 convicted murderers since January 2025, according to the Boston Herald, mostly first-degree.