McBeth v. United States
- Paul Engelmayer
- 1:19-cv-07825
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In McBeth v. United States, Judge Engelmayer denied McBeth’s petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 and denied related appeal requests.
Brian McBeth’s petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 was denied. The order also limited appellate proceedings by declining a certificate of appealability and denying permission to proceed without paying court fees for an appeal.
What happened
Brian McBeth, who was proceeding without a lawyer, filed a petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 against the United States. The opinion does not describe the underlying claims or the reasons given in the magistrate judge’s report.
The case was referred to Magistrate Judge Ona T. Wang, who issued a report recommending how the petition should be resolved. Neither side objected, so Judge Engelmayer reviewed the report for clear error—an obvious mistake on the face of the record—and found none.
In McBeth v. United States, Judge Engelmayer adopted the report in full and denied the petition. He declined to issue a certificate of appealability, found that an appeal would not be taken in good faith, and denied permission to proceed without paying court fees for an appeal.
The detailed version
- McBeth v. United States · No. 1:19-cv-07825
- Paul Engelmayer
- Feb. 24, 2022
Background
Brian McBeth filed a petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 on August 19, 2019. The opinion identifies McBeth as proceeding without a lawyer. The United States responded to the petition. The opinion does not state the specific claims raised in the petition or describe the underlying criminal case.
Magistrate Judge’s Report
The court referred the matter to Magistrate Judge Ona T. Wang. Judge Wang issued a Report and Recommendation on January 4, 2022. The report stated that the parties had 14 days to object and that failing to object would waive objections and prevent appellate review of those issues.
Neither party objected. Judge Engelmayer therefore reviewed the report under the clear-error standard, which asks whether the record shows an obvious mistake. He found no facial error in the report’s conclusions and adopted the report in its entirety.
Ruling
The court denied McBeth’s petition. It also declined to issue a certificate of appealability, certified that any appeal would not be taken in good faith, and denied permission to proceed without paying court fees for purposes of an appeal. The clerk was directed to close the motion at docket entry 1 and mail McBeth a copy of the decision.
Because the opinion does not include the report’s analysis or the petition’s underlying claims, the reasons for denying the petition cannot be summarized from this opinion alone.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.