Cano v. Chisolm
- Lorna Schofield
- 1:19-cv-01640
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Cano v. City of New York, Judge Schofield unsealed specified criminal-court records for limited use in Cano’s civil case.
Christopher Hiram Cano, the City of New York, the City’s Corporation Counsel, and the two entities holding the specified records.
What happened
Christopher Hiram Cano brought a civil action against the City of New York and other defendants in the Southern District of New York. The parties asked the court to unseal records concerning criminal-court orders in a Bronx case involving New York’s procedure for evaluating a person’s mental fitness for criminal proceedings.
The records were held by Mid-Hudson Forensic Psychiatric Center and the Bronx Supreme Court’s criminal term. The order says the records were relevant to the pending civil action and might otherwise be protected by New York confidentiality laws or federal health-information protections.
Judge Lorna G. Schofield ordered the records unsealed and made available to the City’s Corporation Counsel or an authorized representative. The records must remain confidential and may be used only to prosecute or defend Cano’s claims in this civil case.
The detailed version
- Cano v. Chisolm · No. 1:19-cv-01640
- Lorna Schofield
- Dec. 17, 2019
Background
The parties applied to unseal records relating to criminal-court orders in Bronx Supreme Court Indictment No. 02396/2016. The orders concerned Article 730 of the New York Criminal Procedure Law. The opinion states that the records might be protected by New York Criminal Procedure Law §§ 160.50 and 160.55 and by federal health-information protections.
The court found that the requested information was material and relevant to Cano’s pending civil action. The opinion identifies the City’s Office of the Corporation Counsel as defending the civil action. It also states that federal courts have authority to order production of records sealed under New York Criminal Procedure Law § 160.50 and that protected health information may be disclosed in a judicial proceeding when authorized by a court order.
Order
The court ordered that the specified records be unsealed and made available for use in this civil action. The order covered records in the possession, custody, or control of:
- Mid-Hudson Forensic Psychiatric Center; and - Supreme Court of the State of New York, Criminal Term, County of Bronx.
The court further ordered that the records be disclosed to James E. Johnson, Corporation Counsel of the City of New York, or an authorized representative. The records were to be treated as confidential and used only for prosecuting and defending Cano’s claims in this civil suit.
Judge Lorna G. Schofield also directed the Clerk of Court to mail a copy of the order to Cano, whom the order identifies as proceeding without a lawyer. This opinion addresses access and confidentiality of records; it does not decide the underlying claims in the civil action.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.