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Public office

J. Paul Oetken

J. Paul Oetken
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Phone
(212) 805-0266
Email
OetkenNYSDchambers@nysd.uscourts.gov

Judge J. Paul Oetken barred the United States from removing Oscar Bergal before any judge had been assigned the case. He signed that order on the morning of October 9, 2026, as the Part I duty judge, and the justification he wrote down was that the court had to act immediately "to preserve the Court's jurisdiction." He put a man the Department of Homeland Security calls a criminal illegal alien beyond removal, and the reason on the order was the court's own power to keep the case. The order is two pages, in Bergal v. Genalo, 26-cv-8928. It does not release him. It says he "shall not be removed from the United States absent further order of this Court," and that the government shall not transfer him except to a facility in the Southern District of New York, the Eastern District of New York, or the District of New Jersey. It stays in effect until the assigned judge vacates or modifies it. The lawyers filed the habeas petition that morning and, at the same time, asked for a temporary restraining order. Gothamist reported that Make the Road New York filed that petition and was advocating for his release. Judge John P. Cronan, who received the case the same day, wrote that the Part I judge had issued the order earlier that morning, before assignment. Cronan set a hearing for 3:30 p.m. that day in Courtroom 14C at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Courthouse, 500 Pearl Street, and told the parties to be ready to say where Bergal was, and where he was when the petition was filed. The shooting was the day before. The New York Daily News reported it at about 4 p.m. on Marble Hill Avenue near West 225th Street. Marcos Charles, the head of ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations, said agents blocked Bergal's vehicle, that Bergal refused orders to get out, and that Bergal then accelerated, smashing into two ICE vehicles, and accelerated toward other officers. "Because of his escalation, we had to use force," DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said an officer fired seven rounds and Bergal was hit below his left ear, in the neck. He arrived at NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital in stable condition. A 5-year-old boy Tisch said she believed was his son was in the vehicle. The child was not hurt. Mullin said the officers were not aware the child was in the car. Court filings spell his name Oscar Bergal. The NYPD and the Daily News spell it Oscar Belgal. He is 28. The Daily News reported that DHS said on X that he is "a criminal illegal alien from the Dominican Republic." The Daily News also reported that Mullin called him a member of the Trinitarios and said he may have "direct or indirect knowledge" of the shooting of a Customs and Border Protection officer in Fort Washington Park in Manhattan last year. Gothamist reported that Mullin said Bergal became an ICE target because officers believed he had that knowledge. Charles said agents tried to arrest him in September and he evaded. By the next day Charles said Bergal had been placed in a detention facility outside New York. The Daily News reported that Mullin said ICE had taken him out of New York State and that steps to deport him had already begun. The Post Millennial reported that officials said they would continue removal proceedings and would keep trying to remove him. He was out when they found him. The Daily News, citing court documents and prosecutors, reported that he was free on supervised release after being charged with selling fentanyl, heroin, and cocaine, and that he had been arrested twice in New York City in the last three years. In 2023 he was arrested for robbery, pleaded guilty to fourth-degree grand larceny, and was sentenced to five years' probation. Tisch said the same. In December 2025 he was indicted on one count of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the second degree and nine counts in the third degree. The Daily News reported that he sold fentanyl, heroin, and cocaine to an undercover detective on at least eight dates between January 24 and August 4, 2025, on Wadsworth Avenue in Washington Heights, and that he was arrested at that meeting place on August 4. A spokesperson for the Special Narcotics Prosecutor said he has been out on supervised release. Tisch said that case is still pending. Mayor Zohran Mamdani called the shooting an outrage and tried to get Belgal released from federal custody. He did not get that. Oetken did not order a release either. The order he signed does not free Bergal. It forbids removal, and it forbids moving him outside those three districts, until a judge of that court says otherwise.

Order, Bergal v. Genalo, 26-cv-8928 (S.D.N.Y. October 9, 2026)

Defendant

Oscar Bergal

  • 2023 robbery arrest

    Before the drug case. The New York Daily News, citing court documents and prosecutors, reported that Oscar Belgal was arrested in New York City for robbery in 2023, pleaded guilty to fourth-degree grand larceny, and was sentenced to five years' probation. Gothamist reported that NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the same.

  • Criminal sale of a controlled substance

    This is the case he was free on. The Daily News reported that in December 2025 he was indicted on one count of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the second degree and nine counts in the third degree. It reported that he sold fentanyl, heroin, and cocaine to an undercover detective on at least eight dates between January 24 and August 4, 2025, on Wadsworth Avenue in Washington Heights, and that he was arrested at that meeting place on August 4. A spokesperson for the Special Narcotics Prosecutor said he has been out on supervised release. Tisch said the case is still pending.

  • 26-cv-8928

    The arrest ICE made, and the case Judge Oetken acted on. Court filings name him Oscar Bergal. The NYPD and the Daily News call him Oscar Belgal. Gothamist reported that on October 8, 2026, an ICE officer fired seven rounds and hit him below the left ear, in the neck, in Marble Hill, after Marcos Charles said he refused to get out of his vehicle, smashed into two ICE vehicles, and accelerated toward other officers. A 5-year-old boy was in the vehicle and was not hurt. The next morning lawyers filed Bergal v. Genalo and asked for a temporary restraining order. Judge J. Paul Oetken ordered that Bergal not be removed from the United States, and not be transferred except to a facility in the Southern or Eastern District of New York or the District of New Jersey. The order does not release him.

Currently holds

Office contact

Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse, Chambers Room 2101, Courtroom 706

Address
40 Foley Square, New York, NY 10007

The judge's page lists Courtroom 706 and the chambers phone, (212) 805-0266, at the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse, 40 Foley Square, New York, NY 10007. His individual rules revised July 18, 2025, list chambers in Room 2101 at that address and name courtroom deputy Bruce Hampton at (212) 805-4701. Those rules publish OetkenNYSDchambers@nysd.uscourts.gov for chambers correspondence. They say communications with chambers, including requests for extensions, are to be made by letter or letter-motion filed on the court's electronic docket, and that counsel may not send substantive case-related email without leave of the court. For an urgent matter that needs attention in less than one business day, the rules say to call chambers. This is not a personal email address.

Oversight

  • Chief judge

    Laura Taylor Swain

    Chief judge of the Southern District of New York. Her court page lists her at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse, 500 Pearl St., New York, NY 10007-1312, Courtroom 17C, and the chambers address SwainNYSDCorresp@nysd.uscourts.gov.

  • Judicial complaints

    Judicial Council of the Second Circuit

    The Second Circuit says any person may complain about a federal judge's behavior, or about a disability that leaves the judge unable to do the work. It says the procedure does not cover a judge's decision, even a decision the complainant believes is very wrong. A complaint about this order will not undo it.

Social accounts this officeholder has published

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Sourced actions