Judge Denise Cote
Numerous claims were dismissed in Castro-Sanchez’s 42 USC §1983 suit over violation of his constitutional rights and the Americans with Disabilities Act. His proposed amended complaint sought to replead claims related to a 2010 strip search by correction officer Thorpe, who allegedly pulled down Castro-Sanchez’s pants and groped his buttocks while making a derogatory comment and mocking him. Castro-Sanchez contended Thorpe’s actions violated his Eighth Amendment rights. The court denied the complaint’s amendment. Castro-Sanchez did not allege a sufficiently serious violation of his right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment. The groping of his buttocks during a single strip search was far less egregious than the conduct in Boddie v. Schnieder, which was held insufficient to constitute a violation of a prisoner’s Eighth Amendment rights. Castro-Sanchez’s claim that the groping violated the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause because it was motivated by his mental disability and ethnicity also failed. He did not allege fellow inmates received better or dissimilar treatment during strip searches, nor did his amended complaint suggest different treatment because of his mental disability.
