Officer Dismissed for Suspicious Abuse Explicit Images of University of Utah Student

A police officer accused of expressing explicit images of a University of Utah student while investigating a case of emission they filed for her death of 2018 has been fired, officials said Friday. CBS branch KUTV reports Officer Miguel Deras’ employment with the Logan City Police Department ended “effectively” after an internal review of an investigation released by the state’s Department of Public Safety, Chief Gary Jensen said in a statement.

The investigation concluded that Deras “sensitive evidence” was abused “related to 21-year-old The case of Lauren McCluskey while working at the university’s police department.

“The conclusions drawn in the DPS report are in line with the high expectations and standards placed on our officers by the community and our department,” Jensen said.

The investigation, released Wednesday, found that a group of university officers made unfavorable remarks about explicit photos of McCluskey shortly before she was shot and killed by a man she had briefly dated.

Her death has rowed the institution and raised serious questions about how it treated her repeated reports that the man was harassing her before her death, including her extinction with the images they had sent him when they were involved.

A lawyer for Deras has previously refused to comment on the photos. He did so during a routine briefing, but only to ask how they should be treated and stored and made no unusual remarks, his attorney Jeremy Jones said.

“From the memory of my client, he never took it with him. He showed the photos in the briefing. He ‘smoked and did not joke about the photos on time,” he said.

KUTV reports that Lauren’s parents, Jill and Matt, called on the university to conduct a second internal investigation after the report was made public.

“The University of Utah continues to be deceived, covering up the facts and not taking responsibility for the murder of our daughter,” the McCluskeys wrote in a prepared statement. “We now ask the University of Utah to conduct its incomplete and ruthless investigation and for an independent assessment of the facts surrounding Lauren’s murder and the University’s failure to respond to its pleas for help.”

Jill McCluskey also posted on Twitter in July about campus security, wishing all law enforcement officials would make this promise: “I will treat you with respect and dignity, investigate urgently and protect you if anyone threatens you.”