Smith v. Gordon
- Jeffrey Bryan
- 0:24-cv-02714
- U.S. District Court · District of Minnesota
- 2
In Smith v. Gordon, Judge Bryan denied Smith’s custody petition for failing to exhaust state remedies and dismissed the action without prejudice.
Ricardo Dale Smith’s amended petition and related motions were denied, and his action was dismissed without prejudice. Andrew Gordon was the named defendant.
What happened
In Smith v. Gordon, Ricardo Dale Smith asked the federal court to review his custody-related petition. A magistrate judge recommended denying the petition because Smith had not completed the required state-court proceedings.
Neither party objected to the recommendation. The court therefore reviewed it for clear error and found none. It adopted the recommendation.
Judge Jeffrey M. Bryan denied Smith’s amended petition, denied three other motions as moot, and dismissed the action without prejudice. The order did not decide the underlying custody claim because Smith had not exhausted state remedies.
The detailed version
- Smith v. Gordon · No. 0:24-cv-02714
- Jeffrey M. Bryan
- Nov. 22, 2024
Background
Ricardo Dale Smith filed an amended habeas petition, meaning a petition asking a federal court to review a custody-related claim. The court considered a Report and Recommendation issued by United States Magistrate Judge Shannon G. Elkins on October 7, 2024. The recommendation stated that Smith’s petition should be denied because he had not exhausted available state-court remedies. It also recommended denying Smith’s remaining motions as moot, meaning the court no longer needed to decide them.
Review of the Recommendation
Neither party objected to the Report and Recommendation, and the deadline for objections had passed. The court therefore reviewed the recommendation for clear error. It found no clear error and adopted the recommendation.
Ruling
The court denied Smith’s amended petition. It denied as moot Smith’s application to proceed without prepaying fees or costs, his “Motion/Affidavit,” and his request to reconsider an earlier order. The court also dismissed the action without prejudice, which means the order did not bar refiling. Judge Jeffrey M. Bryan entered judgment accordingly. Because the petition was denied for failure to exhaust state remedies, the court did not reach the underlying custody-related claim.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.