UofU settles lawsuit with Lauren McCluskey’s parents for $14MM

[cjd1]

Agreed to build indoor track for the track team, and name it in Lauren’s honor. The McCluskeys are donating all money to a foundation to protect women and animals (shelters), and to scholarships at the University of Utah — all of which were some of Lauren’s passions.

The insurance company paid $10.5MM, and the school paid $3.5MM

[ironman1315]

What a cluster. The U should have paid much more. What nonsense on their part. 

[tarheelio]

I don’t think the school should pay anything. She brought her killer onto campus. Do you think someone has to be liable every time that a person dies?

[Utah]

When the employee of the school, the campus cop, doesn’t do the bare minimum required effort, like alerting a parole officer of a parole violation, which leads to the death of an innocent person, yeah, they should be help liable. 

This was so easily preventable. 

[tarheelio]

If I report a stalking incident, should I then get round the clock security coverage? Everyone likes to ignore the fact that she, and she alone, brought this killer into her own life. Unfortunately, there are victims of violence every day. But when it is a pretty White girl, people get all worked up about it. It is a tragedy, when I heard the news I was legitimately sad for a person that I had never met. But it is asinine to respond to every death with a lawsuit. It is bad for our country. And I say that as one of those blood sucking attorneys.

[Utah]

JESUS CHRIST. You aren’t serious, are you? HOLY S**T. 

Yeah, she brought this guy into her life and then she asked him to leave her life. SHE DID EVERYTHING RIGHT.  

– Lauren met a man who lied about his name and age and didn’t tell her he was a convicted sex offender on parole. What did she do wrong there? 

– Lauren’s friends became aware of how he was treating her and informed U of U and told Utah that they were worried for her safety and that he had guns. They did nothing. What did she do wrong there? 

– Lauren learned his real name and age. She broke up with him. What did she do wrong? 

– Jill, Lauren’s mother, contacted campus police because she was worried about Lauren’s safety. 

– Later, Lauren contacted police because of text messages and social media posts from the guy and his friends. This violated his parole. This is where the police and school failed. They should have pawned him off on his parole officer. The parole officer checks up, finds guns and social media use, the guy goes back to prison, life goes on. Again, LAUREN DID EVERYTHING RIGHT. 

– THE NEXT DAY, Lauren contacts police again, saying the guy is trying to extort her for money with photos of her. AGAIN, the police don’t do their job, don’t look into the guy, don’t contact his parole officer. THIS IS TWO COMPLAINTS IN ONE DAY. What did Lauren do wrong here? 

–  A few days later the guy met with his parole agent. Campus police did not involve themselves like they should have. So, instead of this guy going back to prison, nothing happens. 

– A few days later Lauren CALLS POLICE A THIRD TIME. THREE TIMES. She then sends police photos of the guy’s criminal record and history. THEY STILL DO NOTHING. 

– The next day she is on the phone with her mother. The guy grabs Lauren, drags her off with her mother listening and murders her. 

F**K your response, it’s bulls**t. 

Lauren did everything right and she was murdered for it. Plain and simple. 

[Central Coast Ute]

Yes she got involved with a bad guy, obviously. That doesn’t make her murder her fault. Was there dereliction of duty on the part of the officer? Maybe, I don’t know enough about the case or know enough about the policies and the procedures of the University Police to know if he followed his training or was just lazy.

I do know that blaming Lauren is not right. The guy lied to her about who he was. When she found out, she tried to get rid of him. He obviously wouldn’t have that and we all know what happened. It’s a very sad situation. I can’t blame Lauren for her murder or her family for suing the university. I can’t imagine the pain someone would go through from losing a child, let alone to murder.

[Dallas]

She reported her ex/killer for stalking before her murder, and it doesn’t seem her reports were fully acted upon by the U police. Much more could/should have been done.

[AlohaUte]

So what arbitrary amount would have been enough for you?

[ironman1315]

There is no amount that would satisfy me. But the institution paying 3million isn’t enough.

[gUrthBrooks]

Soooo, how much should the institutitution pay to be enough? How much is the indoor track facility?

[ironman1315]

I don’t know how much the institution should pay. But $3million out of their budget is minimal. 

Note that my primary source of anger is that this happened at all at my university. 

[AlohaUte]

Dude, stuff happens. Bad things happen. Sometimes at the U sometimes elsewhere. You can’t prevent that. That’s not to say the U didn’t screw up, that’s not to say individuals didn’t do bad and stupid things. But it is what it is. Welcome to living on earth.

[Utah]

Yup, and those bad decisions have consequences. Welcome to living on earth. 

We can’t excuse a horrible event that was easily preventable because, “bad things happen.” That’s how more bad things happen. They way the cop acted, then the way the University of Utah acted afterwards was disgusting. It was inexcusable and deserving of harsh punishment to make sure they didn’t do it again and other Universities didn’t try to do the same dispicable things. 

[AlohaUte]

I’m not excusing it. Corrections need to be made, improvements implemented, people punished, and the school face consequences as well.

By the way, I was trying in my post to respond to am different comment but it put it in line with the op, so maybe if my comment were where I intended it it would have been interpreted differently.

[ironman1315]

The U had a responsibility, perhaps not a legal one per se, to ensure her safety. They screwed up. Then they compounded the error by refusing to settle this case until after the McCluskeys sued. This was a total shut show from the U’s end. 

[AlohaUte]

Of course the U screwed up, no one is debating that. But this phrase is just stupid: “to ensure her safety”. What kind of ignorant and naïve statement is that? No can 100% ensure one’s safety. The U has 30K+ people on their campus. There’s going to be crime, there’s going to be bad things that happen. There are going to be screw ups, failures, and unfortunately negligence. But the U can’t “ensure” anyone’s safety. They can take steps to make it safer, decrease risk, etc but they can’t prevent bad things from happening 100%. It’s not like the U is some crime ridden campus where this sort of thing is common and systemic. Get a little perspective.

[Utah]

When a woman calls the police because she is being stalked, the police has some responsibility for her safety. Namely, to look into the guy, and if he is a parolee, to see if it violates his parole and if it does, to act accordingly. Its simple stuff. There is no excuse for what Utah did or how the reacted during and after. 

[Charlie]

I disagree. The individuals should be looked at and individual cases should be dealt with as is reasonable such as getting fired. The supervisors of individuals that made mistakes should be looked at to determine if supervision was getting done or worse yet, determine if supervision was looking the other way when responsibility was not adequate. Training programs should be looked at to determine if the errors made are addressed as behavior that will get you fired. These are all steps that are fair and actually solve problems.

What does not make sense to me is to levy lottery type numbers at insurance companies and institutions that we all fund. Those dollars are passed directly to the public and students that did not make a mistake and are not part of any correction process. Those dollars come from sources that should not pay for the mistakes of a few individuals. This step is not fair and I don’t believe solve problems.

I feel bad for the pain Lauren and her family has suffered, but does this money do anything about that? In the end the family charity may indeed do some very good things.

I disagree that the police did not respond because she was a woman. It would seem strange to suggest that a guy calling would not have been overlooked in the same manor. It would seem both Lauren and the officer made some decisions that were not the best. We need to focus on helping students not repeat mistakes and assuring officers will not repeat mistakes while not passing costs on to others.

[Author]

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