Documents show BYU officer shared other police agencies' reports with school's Honor Code Office

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SALT LAKE CITY — The Department of Public Safety on Thursday released documents related to a former Brigham Young University police lieutenant accused of giving protected police reports to the school's Honor Code Office, among others.

The new information comes two days after the Department of Public Safety announced the BYU Police Department will be decertified in September, stating that the police department had failed to comply with open records rules that all other law enforcement agencies are subject to.

Tension between the state agency and the school's police force has been brewing for a few years.

In 2016, BYU came under public scrutiny after students claimed their efforts to report sexual assaults led to disciplinary investigations under the school's honor code, a set of standards and personal conduct requirements that students agree to adhere to in order to attend the school. Concerns were raised that the university's treatment of sexual assault victims created a climate that made students wary of reporting crimes for fear they themselves would be penalized.

Following a review that led to 23 recommendations for change from the Advisory Council on Campus Response to Sexual Assault in October 2016, BYU adopted an amnesty policy for students who report they are victims of crimes.

According to the documents released Thursday, one-time Lt. Aaron Rhoades "accessed private, protected or controlled police reports from the Orem City Police Department, the Utah County Sheriff's Office, and the Provo City Police Department" between August 2014 and June 2016.

An investigation by Utah's Peace Officer Standards and Training investigations bureau — which is part of the Department of Public Safety — found that Rhoades gave information from those police reports to the BYU Dean of Students Office, the Title IX Office and the Honor Code Office.

That alleged misuse of protected information is a class B misdemeanor, the investigations bureau said.

The Utah County attorney declined to file charges against Rhoades, according to the documents, who gave up his police certification in November following the investigation.

A statement issued Thursday evening by Rhoades' attorney says Rhoades was planning to retire "following a nearly 40-year distinguished career as a Utah law enforcement officer."

He retired in October, the statement says, and his peace officer certification would have lapsed "as a matter of course." He chose to voluntarily relinquish it because he had no further plans to use it, according to the statement.

"Lt. Rhoades believes that he always complied with state laws, regulations and standards. Published reports speculating about Lt. Rhoades’ conduct while at BYUPD are inaccurate. As with the criminal investigation, Lt. Rhoades believes that he would have been successful in showing the POST Council that he did not violate any of the POST certification standards," the statement said.

According to a letter dated Feb. 20 given to the school, BYU police "failed to comply with the certification criteria … specifically, between 2016 and April 2018, BYUPD failed to conduct an internal investigation into specific allegations of misconduct by a BYUPD officer and failed to report any findings found to be true to Peace Officer Standards and Training" as required by law.

The department also "failed to comply with a subpoena issued by POST" on June 28 into allegations of misconduct by a BYUPD officer," the letter states. That subpoena was a command for BYU Police Chief Larry Stott to appear before the investigations bureau to testify as a witness in Rhoades' case in July, according to documents released Thursday.

BYU says it will appeal the decertification decision and believes its police force is an "internal department" of a private institution.

However, university officials on Monday also spoke in favor of SB197, which would clarify in state law that agencies like BYU's police force are subject to Utah public records law. The question is at the heart of an ongoing lawsuit between BYU police and the Salt Lake Tribune, after the newspaper sued when BYU declined to release emails regarding rape allegations made by a 19-year-old student in 2016, arguing it is a "privately funded, managed and operated police department within a private university."