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Parents of College Student Who Was Killed After Weeks of Harassment Sue the School
Published
4 years agoon

A $56 million lawsuit filed Thursday alleges that the University of Utah failed to protect a student who was killed by an ex-boyfriend she had complained about to police more than 20 times.
Lauren McCluskey‘s death on October 22 on the Salt Lake City campus occurred because the university refused to respond to numerous reports of stalking, abuse, intimidation and violence and other behaviors prohibited under the federal Title IX law, the wrongful death suit said.
“The university has taken no responsibility for Lauren’s preventable death,” McCluskey’s mother, Jill told reporters. “No one has been disciplined or held accountable in the campus police or housing.”
“The university must pay a large amount so that they realize it is in their interest to believe women and act with urgency when their female students ask for help,” she said.
In a statement, University President Ruth V. Watkins said the school again expresses “deep sorrow for the loss of Lauren McCluskey.”
“While there are differences in how we would characterize some of the events leading to Lauren’s tragic murder, let me say again that we share the McCluskey family’s commitment to improving campus safety,” she said in the statement. “We continue to address the recommendations identified by the independent review of the university’s safety policies, procedures and resources, and we are making ongoing improvements designed to protect our students and our entire campus community.”
Lauren McCluskey was a 21-year-old track athlete from Pullman, Washington. Her mother said any money from the lawsuit would go to the Lauren McCluskey Foundation, which honors her daugther’s legacy and student athletes.
The lawsuit names several defendants, including the university’s department of housing and residential education and department of public safety.
‘They haven’t updated or done anything’
The suspect, Melvin Rowland, 37, was a convicted sex offender who had spent more than a decade in prison. He had continually harassed Lauren McCluskey after she ended their short relationship. Rowland killed himself hours later after a police chase.
Recordings of 911 calls to Salt Lake City Police show that McCluskey sought help from authorities multiple times and grew increasingly frustrated.
“I’m worried because I’ve been working with the campus police at the U, and last Saturday I reported and I haven’t gotten an update,” she told Salt Lake City Police dispatch.
“They haven’t updated or done anything,” she added.
McCluskey also told police she paid Rowland $1,000 to keep compromising photos of the two of them private, according to a university timeline of McCluskey’s contacts with police. Police had assigned a detective to follow up on possible sexual extortion charges, the timeline noted.
Jill McCluskey said her daughter had also met twice with her counselor to discuss the situation.
Lauren McCluskey and her friends had contacted university officials more than 20 times, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit said the campus police and housing department failed to take meaningful actions “despite having actual knowledge that Melvin Rowland was harassing Lauren and stalking her.”
Rowland was convicted in 2004 of felony charges of enticing a minor and attempted forcible sexual abuse, according to the Utah Department of Corrections sex offender registry. In audio of the hearings released by the Utah Boards of Parole and Pardons, he admitted to a history of manipulating women.
A review of the killing found that University of Utah officers did not know how to look up criminal background or parole information, CNN affiliate KUTV said.
“The review team’s report identified gaps in training, awareness and enforcement of certain policies rather than lapses in individual performance,” the university said.
University police “failed to investigate” whether Rowland was on parole or contact anyone who may have information on him, the lawsuit said. Police also “failed to make an attempt to determine whether Melvin Rowland was behind the harassment and extortion,” the lawsuit said.
After the review, Watkins announced several measures focused on training and improved communication.
James W. McConkie, a McCluskey family attorney, said he hopes the lawsuit “will help the university accept the responsibility which they have for this tragic event.”
“In Utah, when someone does something that’s wrong, we expect them to do everything they can to make it right, but we also expect them to take responsibility for what they have done,” he told reporters.
“And unless that process is complete, then healing and reconciliation are impossible,” McConkie said.
Murdered while on the phone with her mother
Rowland had confronted McCluskey outside of her residence hall while she was on the phone with her mother. He forced her into the back seat of a car and shot her multiple times, according to the university timeline.
Lauren’s father, Matt McCluskey, called the police, who found her body.
Rowland called a woman from a dating site to come pick him up. They went to a restaurant, drove by the capitol, went to her apartment so he could shower and then she dropped him off at a coffee shop, according to the timeline.
After she did, she recognized photos of Rowland in news reports and called the police.
Police then spotted Rowland and chased him on foot to a church, where he shot and killed himself, the timeline said.
“I do not want to be in this world without Lauren. But being stuck here, I have no choice but to try to make this world better,” Matt McCluskey told reporters.
“We want the University of Utah and all academic institutions to be places of leaning where students worry about midterms not survival,” he said.
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News
Three Disney World Employees Among 17 Arrested in Florida Child Sex Sting
Three Disney World employees were among the 17 people arrested in a child sex sting operation in Florida, law enforcement officials announced on Wednesday.
Published
2 years agoon
August 4, 2021
Three Disney World employees were among the 17 people arrested in a child sex sting operation in Florida, law enforcement officials announced on Wednesday.
In the operation, dubbed “Operation Child Protector,” undercover officers posed as 13- and 14-year-old children on social media and online dating apps between July 27 and Aug. 1.
The undercovers made contact with each of the suspects before proposing they meet at a location in Polk County, where they were busted.
In total, the arrests led to 49 felony and two misdemeanor charges. Those arrested were aged 26 to 47. All were from Central Florida except for one 33-year-old man from California.
“What you see on this board … are deviants. Incredible deviants,” Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said at a press conference on Tuesday, motioning to photos of the alleged pervs. “They travel from as far away as Clewiston, Florida. One even came from Los Angeles.”
“Much to their chagrin, instead of meeting with young children, they were met by law enforcement officers who were online undercover posing as children.”
Kenneth Javier Aquino, 26, a lifeguard at Animal Kingdom Lodge at Disney World, was arrested while still wearing his Disney polo shirt and swimsuit, according to the sheriff’s office.
Aquino engaged in an online conversation on social media with an officer, posing as a 13-year-old girl, authorities said. He then asked the “girl” to send photos, and sent her an explicit video of himself, police said.
Aquino told officers he is a Navy veteran and has a pregnant girlfriend.
Jonathan McGrew, a 34-year-old custodian at Disney World, was nabbed by an undercover officer posing as a 13-year-old girl.
McGrew allegedly told the “girl” that he wanted her to come over and have sex with him and his girlfriend, 29-year-old Savannah Lawrence, who also works as a custodian at tourist mecca.
McGrew sent her explicit videos of him and Lawrence performing sexual acts on each other, authorities said.
A rep for Disney World didn’t immediately return a message.
News
China Reports First Human Death from Monkey B Virus
China has reported the first human infection and death in the country caused by a rare infectious disease found in primates known as the Monkey B virus.
The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said a 53-year-old veterinary surgeon who worked in a research institute specializing in nonhuman primate breeding in Beijing dissected two monkeys in March and became ill about a month later.
Published
2 years agoon
July 19, 2021
China has reported the first human infection and death in the country caused by a rare infectious disease found in primates known as the Monkey B virus.
The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said a 53-year-old veterinary surgeon who worked in a research institute specializing in nonhuman primate breeding in Beijing dissected two monkeys in March and became ill about a month later.
He began experiencing nausea, vomiting, fever and neurological issues, and died in May.
Blood and saliva samples were tested and researchers in April found evidence of the Monkey B virus, also known as the herpes B virus.
Researchers said a male doctor and female nurse who were in close contact with the victim tested negative for the virus.
The Monkey B virus is prevalent among macaque monkeys but infection among humans is extremely rare. Since the virus was identified in 1932, just 50 cases have been reported, with the majority of those in North America. Untreated B virus infections in humans are serious, however, with a fatality rate of about 80 percent.
Symptoms include fever, shortness of breath, and progress to more serious complications such as swelling of the brain and spinal cord.
Laboratory workers and veterinarians in close contact with the animals are most at risk as people typically get infected with the virus if they are bitten or scratched by an infected macaque, or have contact with the monkey’s eyes, nose or mouth.
But the virus is unlikely to mutate in a way that poses a problem to the general population. Just one case of human-to-human transmission of the virus has ever been documented.
News
U.S. Remembers 9/11 Terrorist Attacks as The Pandemic Changes Tribute Traditions
Americans are commemorating 9/11 with tributes that have been altered by coronavirus precautions and woven into the presidential campaign, drawing both President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden to pay respects at the same memorial without crossing paths.
Published
3 years agoon
September 11, 2020
Americans are commemorating 9/11 with tributes that have been altered by coronavirus precautions and woven into the presidential campaign, drawing both President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden to pay respects at the same memorial without crossing paths.
In New York, a dispute over coronavirus-safety precautions is leading to split-screen remembrances Friday, one at the Sept. 11 memorial plaza at the World Trade Center and another on a nearby corner. The Pentagon’s observance will be so restricted that not even victims’ families can attend, though small groups can visit the memorial there later in the day.
Trump and Biden are both headed — at different times — to the Flight 93 National Memorial near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Trump is speaking at the morning ceremony, the White House said. Biden plans to pay respects there in the afternoon after attending the observance at the 9/11 memorial in New York.
Meanwhile, Vice President Mike Pence is also due at ground zero — and then at the alternate ceremony a few blocks away.
In short, the anniversary of 9/11 is a complicated occasion in a maelstrom of a year, as the U.S. grapples with a health crisis, searches its soul over racial injustice and prepares to choose a leader to chart a path forward.
Still, 9/11 families say it’s important for the nation to pause and remember the hijacked-plane attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people at the trade center, at the Pentagon and near Shanksville on Sept. 11, 2001, shaping American policy, perceptions of safety and daily life in places from airports to office buildings.
“I know that the heart of America beats on 9/11 and, of course, thinks about that tragic day. I don’t think that people forget,” says Anthoula Katsimatides, who lost her brother John and is now on the board of the National Sept. 11 Memorial & Museum.
Friday will mark Trump’s second time observing the 9/11 anniversary at the Flight 93 memorial, where he made remarks in 2018. Biden spoke at the memorial’s dedication in 2011, when he was vice president.
The ground zero ceremony in New York has a longstanding custom of not allowing politicians to speak, though they can attend. Biden did so as vice president in 2010, and Trump as a candidate in 2016.
Though the candidates will be focused on the commemorations, the political significance of their focus on Shanksville is hard to ignore: Pennsylvania is a must-win state for both. Trump won it by less than a percentage point in 2016.
Around the country, some communities have canceled 9/11 commemorations because of the pandemic, while others are going ahead, sometimes with modifications.
The New York memorial is changing one of its ceremony’s central traditions: having relatives read the names of the dead, often adding poignant tributes.
Thousands of family members are still invited. But they’ll hear a recording of the names from speakers spread around the vast plaza, a plan that memorial leaders felt would avoid close contact at a stage but still allow families to remember their loved ones at the place where they died.
But some victims’ relatives felt the change robbed the observance of its emotional impact. A different 9/11-related group, the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation, set up its own, simultaneous ceremony a few blocks away, saying there’s no reason that people can’t recite names while keeping a safe distance.
The two organizations also tussled over the Tribute in Light, a pair of powerful beams that shine into the night sky near the trade center and evoke its fallen twin towers. The 9/11 memorial initially canceled the display, citing virus-safety concerns for the installation crew. After the Tunnel to Towers Foundation vowed to put up the lights instead, the memorial changed course with help from its chairman, former Mayor Mike Bloomberg, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Tunnel to Towers, meanwhile, arranged to display single beams for the first time at the Shanksville memorial and the Pentagon.
Over the years, the anniversary also has become a day for volunteering. Because of the pandemic, the 9/11 National Day of Service and Remembrance organization is encouraging people this year to make donations or take other actions that can be accomplished at home.
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