Document ID: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-ca4-23-06380/USCOURTS-ca4-23-06380-0/pdf.json

Parties Involved:
Kenneth Ray Matthews
Appellant
United States of America
Appellee

Document Text:

UNPUBLISHED

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

No. 23-6380

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Plaintiff - Appellee,

v.

KENNETH RAY MATTHEWS,

Defendant - Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, at 

Norfolk. Arenda L. Wright Allen, District Judge. (2:95-cr-00069-AWA-1)

Submitted: November 14, 2024 Decided: January 13, 2025

Before NIEMEYER and BERNER, Circuit Judges, and KEENAN, Senior Circuit Judge.

Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

Kenneth Ray Matthews, Appellant Pro Se. Elizabeth Marie Yusi, Assistant United States

Attorney, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Norfolk, Virginia, for 

Appellee.

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.

USCA4 Appeal: 23-6380 Doc: 14 Filed: 01/13/2025 Pg: 1 of 2
2

PER CURIAM:

Kenneth Ray Matthews appeals the district court’s order denying his motion to 

expunge his since-vacated 1995 federal firearm conviction. The district court found that it 

lacked jurisdiction to consider the motion because federal ancillary jurisdiction does not 

extend to motions for equitable expungement. See Kokkonen v. Guardian Life Ins. Co. of 

Am., 511 U.S. 375, 379-81 (1994). The court further concluded that even if it were to 

exercise ancillary jurisdiction over Matthews’s motion, his case did not satisfy the 

extraordinary circumstances that this Court has held must be present in order to warrant 

expungement.

We have reviewed the record and find no reversible error. Accordingly, we deny 

Matthews’s pending motion to appoint counsel, and we affirm the district court’s order. 

United States v. Matthews, No. 2:95-cr-00069-AWA-1 (E.D. Va. Apr. 10, 2023). We 

dispense with oral argument because the facts and legal contentions are adequately 

presented in the materials before this court and argument would not aid the decisional 

process. 

AFFIRMED

USCA4 Appeal: 23-6380 Doc: 14 Filed: 01/13/2025 Pg: 2 of 2