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Pro se transgender inmate Ziphaire W. Peters had an order for protective custody from a New York State judge while she awaited trial on Rikers Island. Nevertheless, she was put on a bus to travel to another jail on Rikers, where she would be placed in general population. When she protested the move, she alleges that she was "dragged" onto the bus, where the correctional officer bus driver finger-raped her multiple times in her rectum. During the assault, the officer repeatedly called Peters "bitch" and "faggot." She says she was returned to the original jail and not permitted a rape kit for several days, until physical evidence of her penetration dissipated. She sued the NYC Commissioner of Corrections, a Warden, and an Assistant Deputy Warden - for excessive force and for failure to protect her in Peters v. Mills, 2022 WL 1570990 (S.D.N.Y., May 18, 2022).
U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos (Obama) dismissed the claims without prejudice, saying the allegations did not sufficiently plead personal involvement of the named defendants. Even though the state protective order may have shown some need for protection, particularly for the assistant deputy warden, it did not provide notice that Peters needed protection from officers on a bus trip, as opposed to protection from other inmates.
Judge Ramos directs Corrections to provide Peters the name of the bus driver, and he allows the claims to proceed against a "John Doe" defendant, to be identified, citing Valentin v. Dinkins, 121 F.3d 72, 76 (2d Cir. 1997) (pro se litigant is entitled to assistance from the district court in identifying an unidentified defendant). Good luck. Even this claim will be limited to the...