Celisia Stanton (39:27)
As part of his parole, Melvin was required to abstain from pornography and social media. But just a few months later, he violated these conditions and landed back in prison. Fast forward to 2013. Melvin was paroled again. ESPN reported that he had a few run ins with the police during this period, but none of those encounters landed him back in prison. Then in October 2015, things took another turn. Melvin was driving when he rerended another car. A passerby, concerned, pulled over to check on everyone. Instead of staying put, Melvin scrambled into the passenger seat of the Good Samaritan's car and demanded that he drive them away from the scene. When Melvin's parole officer caught wind of this incident, they recommended arresting him for a laundry list of violations, kidnapping, fraud, damage to property, and leaving the scene of an accident. But because the driver didn't press charges, the parole board decided an arrest wasn't warranted. Come February 2016, Melvin's troubles continued. During a routine visit, he bolted from parole officers. According to adult probation and parole records obtained by espn, Melvin made it clear he was done with parole. He even warned that he'd act aggressively if another officer showed up. It wasn't long before officers discovered a second phone Melvin had been using to store explicit photos and message women on social media. He was arrested for skipping his mandated sex offender therapy, fleeing from officers, possessing pornographic material, and using social media without approval. At his parole board hearing, Melvin insisted that his threats to officers were just heat of the moment frustration. Despite his claims, the board decided it was time for him to go back to prison. In April of 2018, Melvin was granted parole one final time. His sentence was set to expire the following spring, and he was only out of prison for a handful of months before meeting Lauren. Three days after Lauren had reported being blackmailed, Melvin had actually met with his parole officer. But because campus police never checked Melvin's offender status, they didn't even know he was on parole. Checking parole status just wasn't a part of campus police protocol. In fact, according to espn, the University of Utah's internal investigation discovered that officers didn't even know how to check correction status in the first place. Some sources even reported that the university police chief didn't trust Utah's Adult Probation and Parole Board and that it was basically unofficial policy to avoid communicating with them out of fear they might negatively interfere with ongoing investigations at the university. It's all a shame because the fact is, Melvin had social media, was using dating sites, and even borrowed a gun before killing Lauren, all of which were in direct violation of his parole terms. In the aftermath of Lauren's murder, the University of Utah hired an independent team to review the university officer's handling of her case. Their report highlighted several shortcomings by officials and recommendations for improvement, including hiring victim advocates and providing officers with adequate training related to interpersonal violence. The report concluded, we will never know that this tragedy could have been prevented without these deficiencies. What we can say is that correcting the issues we have identified in this report might lessen the probability of such a tragedy occurring again. But according to the Salt Lake Tribune, the university president took her own interpretation of the report at a press conference. She claimed, quote, the report does not offer any reason to believe that this tragedy could have been prevented. It was a statement that didn't sit well with Lauren's loved ones. Lauren's parents filed a $56 million lawsuit the following summer. At the time, they said they viewed it as a last resort after months of trying to work with the University of Utah directly. But in the years following Lauren's murder, it became clear that issues with the university police department stretched far beyond the mistakes made in Lauren's case. Just five months after Lauren's murder, Detective Dallef was fired for taking insufficient and delayed action on yet another domestic violence case. Similarly, Officer Miguel Derres, one of Lauren's primary points of contact within the department, was disciplined for mistakes he made in a similar case, according to his discipline letter. In that case, he didn't check the suspect's parole status and even interviewed the victim while the suspect was still in the room. To make matters worse, the Salt Lake Tribune reported that Officer Daras had shown Lauren's intimate photos to a co worker. Yep, the same photos Melvin used to blackmail Lauren. And no, Officer Darres wasn't showing the photos in some kind of professional capacity. Instead, he was bragging about, quote, getting to look at them whenever he wanted. The university responded, saying they were aware of Daras behavior, but had only learned of him sharing the photos after he transferred to a different police department. The Salt Lake Tribune also published its own investigative report, one that illuminated a long history of officers downplaying and ignoring cases of dating and domestic violence. According to discipline records they obtained during their investigation, many officers failed to contact victims on reasonable timelines, some even ignoring reports completely. Former staff members told the Salt Lake Tribune that they had instructions to, quote, downplay the number of domestic violence cases by not creating a record for some calls or altering dispatch log entries for others. Similarly, female students who had reported rape, sexual assault, and harassment said they felt their concerns weren't taken seriously. Hearing about all these egregious errors had me reflecting on accountability. It's abundantly clear that so many, many individual people failed at their jobs. Countless singular missteps with dire consequences. And while those folks certainly must be held accountable for their role, I also believe that the easiest thing we can do as a society is to scapegoat one or few individuals. The harder and perhaps more crucial task is to recognize the ways in which entire systems failed to protect Lauren. Because individuals operating in broken systems are bound to fail. And it's for that reason that Lauren's parents continue fighting for change in her memory. In 2020, the McCluskeys won a $13.5 million settlement from the state and University of Utah. Soon after, they shared their intention to donate all of the settlement money to the Lauren McCluskey foundation, an organization they founded in 2019 with a mission to increase awareness of stalking and dating violence at colleges and universities across the country. As a part of that work, they also created Lauren's Promise, a campaign that encourages faculty, staff, students, parents and community members to publicly pledge their support with a statement of solidarity that indicates to others that they will listen and believe victims of sexual assault, dating violence and stalking that they can be a trusted source ready to connect folks with needed resources. The McCluskey family has also been critical in the adoption of several state bills, including one that requires Utah public colleges to create detailed response plans for cases of stalking, sexual assault, dating and domestic violence. Amid student protests and the work of Lauren's loved ones, the University of Utah has also made a number of meaningful changes. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, In 2020, the school opened a Center for Violence Prevention, an institution that will research intimate partner violence like that which Lauren experienced. And truly, all of what I just shared is the tip of the iceberg. Despite the overwhelming pain of Lauren's death, the McCluskeys have been fueled by their unimaginable loss to make a meaningful difference. And still there is so much work to be done. In fact, another University of Utah student, 19 year old Xifon Dong, was killed by her ex In February of 2022, less than a month after she reported to campus police that this same ex had assaulted her. As Lauren's dad told espn, there are so many, many young women like Lauren who are just as precious to their parents, women whose stories don't get the same attention. And for me, it's that acknowledgment that should fuel the rest of us. Lauren's legacy has and will continue to be absolutely transformative. And if a single story can spur so much action, what might be possible? If we afforded every young person the same level of care and recognition, maybe then we could understand the full picture a little more deeply. That these stories have happened, are happening, and will continue to happen unless and until we decide to stop treating community problems as individual problems and transform systems that keep us trapped in patterns that ultimately hurt all of us. Before you jump away, just a couple more things I wanted to share with you. One thing that really stuck out to me about today's story is Lauren's parents, Jill and Matt McCluskey, and just their commitment to advocating for folks like Lauren across the country. We told you in the episode, but in her honor, they founded the Lauren McCluskey foundation, whose mission is to let Lauren's light shine by supporting her passions, which were things like animal welfare, amateur athletics, and of course, by making sure that campuses across the country are a place where students are safe, supported, and have the ability to thrive. So I really recommend that for today's action item. Check out their website. They offer advocates and allies a plethora of amazing resources, even things like a student toolkit for those who'd like to push for change and create a culture of safety on their own campuses. Much of their work also centers around forwarding Lauren's Promise, which is that pledge that basically says I will listen and believe you if someone is threatening you. So you can make Lauren's promise, learn how to volunteer and donate to support the rest of their incredible work@laurenmcclesky.org as always, you can keep up with Truer Crime on Instagram and xrewercrimepod, and you can also find me on Instagram and TikTok, Alicia Stanton and through my weekly newsletter, sincerelyceleciaincerelycelecia.substack.com for a full source list and links to all of today's action items, make sure to visit our website@truercrimepodcast.com Truer Crime is created, hosted and written by me, Celisia Stanton and is a production of Tenderfoot TV in association with Odyssey. Additional writing and research by Olivia Heusingfeld. Executive producers are myself, Donald Albright and Payne Lindsay. Additional production by Olivia Hussingfeld and Jamie Albright. Editing by Liam Luxon with additional editing support by Sydney Evans and Jaja Muhammad. Our supervising producer is Tracy kaplan. Artwork by Station 16 Original music by Jay Ragsdale Mix by Dayton Cole. Thank you to Oren Rosenbaum and the team at uta, Beck Media and Marketing and the Nord Group. For more podcasts like True or Crime, search Tenderfoot TV on your favorite podcast app or visit us@Tenderfoot TV. Thanks for listening. Thanks for listening to this season two episode of True or Crime. If you want an ad free version of this show and other great shows from Tenderfoot TV, you can subscribe to Tenderfoot plus at tenderfootplus.com or on Apple Podcasts.
