Hernandez-Ruiz

MEMORANDUM **

This court lacks jurisdiction over Delfino Hernandez-Ruiz’s appeal. Hernandez relies on 28 U.S.C. § 636 (c)(3) in appealing Magistrate Judge Carruth’s denial of his motion for writ of error coram nobis directly to this court. However, 28 U.S.C. § 636 (c)(3) permits appeal from a judgment of a magistrate judge directly to the court of appeals only in cases “referred under paragraph (1) of this subsection.” Paragraph (1), in turn, specifies that the parties may consent to allow a magistrate judge to conduct proceedings in a civil matter. 28 U.S.C. § 636 (c)(1).

However, Hernandez’s motion was not referred to Judge Carruth under 28 U.S.C. § 636 (c)(1). Rather, Judge Carruth specified that his jurisdiction to rule on Hernandez’s motion—“a step in the criminal case and not ... the beginning of a separate civil proceeding”—stemmed from Hernandez’s consent to proceed before a magistrate judge in his criminal misdemeanor proceedings under 18 U.S.C. § 3401 .

28 U.S.C. § 636 (c)(3) deals exclusively with civil matters. It does not permit a party like Hernandez who consents to have a magistrate judge preside over his criminal misdemeanor proceedings to appeal a magistrate…