Cop Kept “Explicit” Photos of Blackmailed Coed

Nothing says professionalism like voyeurism. The title to this post could include “soon-to-be-dead Coed.” University of Utah police officer showed off explicit photos of Lauren McCluskey to his co-worker. I could also include a pejorative adjective to describe the cop, but I leave that you to fill in.

In case you’re confused, University of Utah student Lauren McCluskey was murdered in October of 2018. Prior to the murder, the guy would later kill her, hacked her files and got some “explicit” photos that she had of herself. The hacker blackmailed her for $1000.

There is a lesson in bad judgement there, and another in computer security.

Scared by the demand, she paid the money and then sent copies of the messages and the pictures to the campus police department as evidence.

When Miguel Deras, one of the officers assigned to her case, received them, he saved the photos on his personal phone. And days before McCluskey was killed by the man who was blackmailing her, Deras showed off at least one of the images to a male co-worker and bragged about getting to look at them whenever he wanted, according to two fellow officers.

Only now has the University admitted this happened and opened an internal-affairs investigation. Cops investigating cops? What could go wrong? I mean it only took 2 years for the incident to come to anyone’s attention. (Hat tip to The Other McCain.)