Leonardo Roque v. Erik Hooks, No. 22-6054 (4th Cir. 2022)

Annotate this Case

Download PDF

UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 22-6054 LEONARDO ROQUE, Petitioner - Appellant, v. ERIK A. HOOKS, Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Public Safety, Respondent - Appellee. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, at Charlotte. Martin K. Reidinger, Chief District Judge. (3:18-cv-00459-MR) Submitted: May 19, 2022 Decided: May 24, 2022 Before MOTZ and HARRIS, Circuit Judges, and TRAXLER, Senior Circuit Judge. Remanded by unpublished per curiam opinion. Leonardo Roque, Appellant Pro Se. Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit. PER CURIAM: Leonardo Roque seeks to appeal the district court’s order dismissing his 28 U.S.C. § 2254 petition as barred by the statute of limitations. Roque filed his notice of appeal on December 28, 2021. * In his notice, Roque stated that he did not receive notice of the district court’s order until December 3, after the 30-day appeal period expired, was misadvised by the district court on the steps he needed to take to perfect his appeal, and that he was having difficulty accessing the prison notary because of the Christmas holiday. Accordingly, we remand this case for the limited purpose of allowing the district court to determine whether Roque demonstrated good cause or excusable neglect and if the appeal period should be reopened or extended. See Fed. R. App. P. 4(a)(5), (6). The record, as supplemented, will then be returned to this court for further consideration. REMANDED For the purpose of this appeal, we assume that the date appearing on the notice of appeal is the earliest date Roque could have delivered the notice to prison officials for mailing to the court. Fed. R. App. P. 4(c)(1); Houston v. Lack, 487 U.S. 266, 276 (1988). * 2

Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.