Alvin E. Goney v. James E. Clark, Jr., Warden, Fayette County Jail

OPINION OF THE COURT

The major issue in this appeal brought by a prisoner in a civil rights action against a warden is whether, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1), the district court should have engaged in a de novo review of the magistrate’s report by reading a transcript or listening to a tape recording of the entire hearing before the magistrate. Section 636(b)(1) requires that a plaintiff must file both timely and specific objections to the report to trigger de novo review. The appellant argues that his objections were timely and that because they involved the whole report, a review of a…