Summary
This United States District Court order adopts a Magistrate Judge’s Report and Recommendation and grants the respondent’s motion to dismiss a pro se habeas corpus petition. The petitioner challenged his 2019 state criminal convictions for offenses involving a minor, but the court found the petition untimely under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. Because no timely objections were filed to the magistrate’s findings, the court adopted the recommendations without de novo review and dismissed the action with prejudice.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether the habeas petition was timely filed under 28 U.S.C. §2254 and Fed. R. Civ. P. 72(b).
- Whether the district court may adopt the magistrate judge’s recommendation without conducting a de novo review.
Holdings
- The petition was untimely; the motion to dismiss was granted and the action dismissed with prejudice.
- The district court may adopt the magistrate’s recommendation absent a clear error.
Key quotations
“The respondent’s Motion to Dismiss (ECF No. 9) is GRANTED. This action is DISMISSED WITH PREJUDICE.”
Factual background
Petitioner Ryan Thomas Pick was convicted in 2019 in the Hanover County Circuit Court of Virginia for using a communication system to promote or procure the use of a minor in a sexual act and for soliciting a minor he knew or had reason to believe was under 15 years old.
Procedural history
Pick filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus challenging his 2019 convictions. The respondent moved to dismiss. The magistrate judge issued a Report and Recommendation finding the petition untimely and recommending dismissal. The parties did not object. The district court adopted the recommendation and dismissed the petition with prejudice.