Utah campus police officer denies saving explicit photo of murdered student, given as evidence

A former campus police officer at the University of Utah has denied saving explicit photos of a student, who provided them to the authorities as evidence that her ex boyfriend was blackmailing her before she was murdered by him.

The student, 21-year-old Lauren McCluskey, provided the photos as evidence after her ex boyfriend, 37-year-old Melvin Rowland, blackmailed her by saying he had access to some of her private photos.

In fear of what Rowland might do, Ms McCluskey paid him, and then handed over photos and screenshots of his messages to campus police officer, Miguel Deras.

Rowland is believed to have killed himself and Ms McCluskey nine days after she handed the evidence over to the police.

Ms McCluskey ended the relationship a month prior, after finding out that Rowland was a registered sex offender and had lied to her about his age.

An article published by the Lake Tribune, accused Mr Deras of saving the explicit photos to his personal phone, and showing them to at least one of his male colleagues, while bragging about having them.

Mr Deras’ lawyer, JC Jensen, denied the claims that he saved the private photos to his phone, while speaking to KSL TV.

“No evidence. No physical evidence. Not a single picture was downloaded to his personal cell phone,” he said.

“I want the public to step back and read the article and realise there are flaws in the article,” Mr Jensen added.

An independent investigation that was commissioned by the university could not find any evidence that Mr Deras saved the photos.

A former colleague of Mr Deras told campus police that he had been shown the images by him, but the university had no physical evidence of it.

However, the police officer, who replaced Mr Deras when he left to join the Logan City Police Department, has initiated a second investigation, because of the “seriousness of the accusations, the thoroughness of the report, and to avoid any perception of bias.”

Last October, Ms McCluskey’s parents filed a lawsuit that accused the university of failing to take responsibly for her death, and for failing to protect her.

The lawsuit claims that despite knowing about their daughter’s claims, the university did not prevent Mr Rowland from being on campus, or do enough to protect her.

They are asking for $56m in damages, that will be put in a trust to improve safety on campus.

Jill McCluskey, Lauren’s mother, told the outlet that her daughter was exploited by the campus police.

“The people who were supposed to be helping and protecting Lauren were actually exploiting her,” she said. “I wish that Deras had used his time to arrest the man who was committing crimes against Lauren.”