Jones v. Joseph Caputo
- John Cronan
- 1:22-cv-02794
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Rafael Jones v. Ann Marie Sullivan, Judge Aaron ordered a possible respondent substitution and sealed filing without deciding the habeas petition’s merits.
Rafael A. Jones, Ann Marie T. Sullivan, and Joseph Caputo were affected. The order required a possible substitution of Caputo as respondent and required the respondent to file a clinical director’s evaluation under seal.
What happened
Rafael A. Jones filed this habeas case against Ann Marie T. Sullivan. After a July 12, 2022 telephone conference, the court addressed who should be named as respondent and whether a clinical evaluation should remain confidential.
The court ordered the respondent to file a motion by July 21 to substitute Joseph Caputo, whom Jones identified as the officer currently holding him in custody. The court also ordered the respondent to file under seal a clinical director’s evaluation of Jones, finding that the interests of justice significantly outweighed the need for confidentiality.
Judge Stewart D. Aaron issued the July 14, 2022 order. The order handled case-management and confidentiality issues and did not decide the underlying habeas petition.
The detailed version
- Jones v. Joseph Caputo · No. 1:22-cv-02794
- John Cronan
- July 14, 2022
Background
Following a telephone conference on July 12, 2022, the court entered an order concerning the proper respondent and confidentiality of a clinical evaluation. The opinion states that Jones had recently been transferred to the custody of the New York City Department of Corrections on Rikers Island. It also states that Jones previously had been in Caputo’s custody in connection with the same state criminal charges at issue in this proceeding. The opinion refers generally to several prior related habeas proceedings involving those charges, but this order did not decide the merits of the present petition.
Orders
1. The court ordered the respondent to file, no later than July 21, 2022, a motion under Rule 2(a) of the rules governing Section 2254 cases to substitute Joseph Caputo as respondent. The order says that Jones identified Caputo during the conference as the officer who currently had custody of him.
2. Under Section 33.13(c)(1) of the New York Mental Hygiene Law, the court found that the interests of justice significantly outweighed the need for confidentiality. It therefore ordered the respondent to file under seal, no later than July 21, 2022, the clinical director’s evaluation of Jones referenced in a July 8, 2022 letter.
Disposition and classification
Judge Stewart D. Aaron issued a procedural order addressing respondent substitution and sealing. The order did not grant or deny the habeas petition and did not reach the underlying legal claims. The opinion is therefore classified as a procedural order.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.