UMN student senator removed after stalking allegations

The University of Minnesota Student Senate voted to remove Romello Lloyd, a former College of Liberal Arts (CLA) senator, from the Senate in a closed meeting on April 14 after Lloyd was charged with two felony counts of stalking.

The Senate voted 44-2 to remove Lloyd because of doubt cast on the Student Senate’s integrity and credibility resulting from the stalking allegations. Lloyd’s removal does not stop him from running for the Senate in the future.

“I can’t control how you guys vote. I’m sure a lot of you don’t like me, while others don’t have anything against me but might vote me out for other reasons,” Lloyd said in a statement to the senate before the vote. “I’m not the type of person to quit, so that’s why I’m not voluntarily giving up my position.”

Lloyd, 26, first came under public scrutiny during campus elections in March because he was running to be the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) president. It was during this time alleged victims, including several University students, began circulating information about the charges and restraining orders against Lloyd on social media.

Some students called for Lloyd’s removal from the ballot. However, according to campus elections rules, candidates cannot be removed after the ballot has been sent out.

“I think that everybody is on the same page in terms of the fact that it shouldn’t have gotten this far,” USG Vice President Zeke Jackson said. “The University policies around who’s eligible to run and participate in elections and stuff like that just weren’t as rigorous as they could or should be.”

USG President Flora Yang said she expects USG to discuss changing the campus election rules to create more “well-rounded and specific guidelines around the election process.”

Lloyd ultimately did not win USG president, only garnering about 15% of the vote, but he was reelected to the Student Senate, which is what led to the April 14 meeting.

Some students have also stated concerns about Lloyd living in University housing. Lloyd is currently listed as a resident at Bailey Hall, the University’s St. Paul residence hall.

Lloyd currently has two active cases accusing him of felony stalking and multiple restraining orders filed against him. Several students also said they have filed Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action (EOAA) investigations through the University. Lloyd has not been convicted of anything yet.

A timeline of Lloyd’s stalking charges, restraining orders

Lloyd was first charged with two counts of gross misdemeanor stalking in 2022, according to a criminal complaint filed Feb. 23, 2022, in Brooklyn Center. According to the complaint, the alleged stalking took place from March 1, 2019, to July 31, 2020.

In the complaint, the petitioner said Lloyd emailed her “excessively,” stating he knew where she lived and sending sexually explicit messages. She stated in the complaint the messages made her feel “uncomfortable and fearful.”

In July 2022, Lloyd underwent a court-ordered evaluation to assess his competency to proceed in the case. Lloyd was found incompetent to stand trial on Dec. 6, 2022, and the case was dismissed on Feb. 16.

The plaintiff said he was sending her messages on social media dating back to 2015 or 2016, according to the complaint. The messages are reported in the complaint as “vulgar, with references to rape.” In one message, Lloyd said he “likes to force women to c**,” according to the complaint.

A search warrant of Lloyd’s “home and devices” revealed “attempts to identify and locate” the petitioner, 300 searches for the word “stalker” and video and journal entries referencing the petitioner, according to the complaint.

The plaintiff reported mental anguish, trouble sleeping, loss of focus on tasks and was diagnosed with PTSD due to Lloyd’s behavior, according to the complaint.

In a separate civil case, a different petitioner filed a restraining order against Lloyd, which police served July 26, 2022. The petitioner attended beauty school from 2015-2016, during which she cut his hair.

In 2020, Lloyd started contacting her via social media, email and phone calls. His messages to her became increasingly sexual, and he created multiple social media accounts to contact her, according to court documents. In July 2022, he visited her place of work twice and took pictures of the petitioner, causing fear and anxiety.

She later filed a criminal case against Lloyd, who was charged with one count of felony stalking on March 10, according to a criminal complaint filed in St. Louis Park. University police arrested Lloyd on March 12 on a warrant for this case, and Lloyd was released the following day.

February and March

Lloyd was served another restraining order on Feb. 27. Jane, who is a University student and chose to use a pseudonym because of safety concerns, filed the restraining order. The order alleges Lloyd harassed Jane by repeatedly attempting to contact her from 2015 to 2021, causing her to feel “frightened, threatened, oppressed, persecuted or intimated.”

Lloyd was served a third restraining order on March 24. This time it came from Emma, a University student, who chose to use a pseudonym because of safety concerns.

Emma, 22, met Lloyd over Tinder in March, but when she refused to see him in person to have sex, he threatened to share videos of her on social media.

Lloyd then posted information about Emma, including her name and physical appearance, on Reddit and Snapchat, calling her a “whore” and a “sexual harasser,” according to court documents.

Emma reported she was scared he would show up to her apartment and post more about her online.

“He said, basically, if I don’t stick to my plans, let him come over and have sex with me, he would keep posting about me,” Emma said.

She said Lloyd used his former position on the Student Senate to threaten her, saying, “he’s gonna report me before I can report him. He’s going to talk about me at the Senate meetings, he’s going to tell everyone that I am a sexual harasser and I’m a predator, to stay away from me.”

Lloyd was served another restraining order on March 24. It came from Lewis Seung Martin, another University student. Martin is friends with Emma and began engaging with Lloyd over social media to tell him to stop contacting her.

According to court documents, Lloyd used multiple social media accounts to send harassing messages to Martin in March. Martin reported being afraid Lloyd would show up at his residence or place of work.

April

Lloyd was then charged with another count of felony stalking, according to a criminal complaint filed on April 4. University police arrested him on April 5 and he was released April 7.

According to the criminal complaint, Lloyd engaged in stalking from January 2022 to February of this year, but the plaintiff, Jane, told Plymouth police Lloyd stalked her for several years.

Jane said Lloyd attended middle school with her. She has reported several incidents involving Lloyd to Plymouth police over the years, including harassing and sexually explicit emails, social media messages, mail and phone calls, according to the complaint.

Most recently, Jane, who is a also involved in student governance, said she was participating in a Student Senate Zoom call on Feb. 23 when another participant named “Romello” joined the call with their camera off.

Later in the meeting, Jane was in a breakout room with “Romello,” who turned his camera on, and she recognized him as Lloyd. Jane reported Lloyd held a stuffed animal up to the camera and shook it in a sexual manner at her.

“He’s like, interacting with me until eventually I’m thinking, ‘you’re an actual stalker in my breakout room right now,’” she said. “You have the same name, the same weird demeanor and the same strange behavior.”

Jane was told after the meeting that Lloyd had specifically requested to join her breakout room. She hadn’t known Lloyd was attending the University.

In a search of Lloyd’s electronic devices, detectives found files with Jane’s contact information, home address and a journal entry detailing how to talk to her with sexual references, according to the complaint. Detectives also found files describing Lloyd’s sexual desires for Jane.

In addition to the search Plymouth detectives carried out, the search from the Brooklyn Center case also revealed copies of two letters addressed to Jane from January 2022 and April 2022.

“I can meet you at your place of work. And I will f*** you swiftly … Your saliva should be in my mouth … my c** inside of you,” the first letter stated.

The second letter stated the author was “tired of waiting” and that visits to Jane’s house were “not satisfactory.”

“I want you. Either as a friend, or just to have intercourse for one night or more if you wanted,” the letter stated.

In both Jane’s felony case against Lloyd and the St. Louis Park felony case, prosecutors are seeking upward charges, alleging Lloyd targeted the plaintiffs based on their actual or perceived race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, disability, age or national origin.

The maximum sentence right now is either 10 years in prison or a fine of $20,000.

Most recently, the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office arrested Lloyd on Friday for failing to comply with electronic home monitoring (EHM) rules. He was released Friday night under the following conditions: no contact with victim(s), stay a reasonable distance away from the victim’s residence and electronic monitoring.

Lloyd began electronic monitoring at the beginning of April. EHM allowed him to “roam freely” within Bailey Hall and travel to and from the St. Paul Student Center for meals because he is a student living in a dormitory environment, according to court documents.

While University Housing and Residential Life (HRL) stated they are not able to disclose information about individual students and could not confirm whether Lloyd is living in Bailey Hall, his listed residence in the student directory is Bailey Hall. An April 14 court document also stated Bailey Hall as his confirmed address.

According to that same April 14 document, Lloyd will undergo a court-ordered psychological evaluation to determine his competency to participate in the two felony cases.

His next court appearance for the felony cases is July 10, during which his psychological evaluation results will be presented.

Lloyd declined an interview with the Minnesota Daily but said in an email statement that he cannot talk about the ongoing cases.

“Honestly, the attention doesn’t bother me, believe it or not,” Lloyd said in the statement. “I enjoyed the ride and the attention, but I have to point out how hypocritical and stupid it [the accusations] is.”

This story is the first part in a two-part series. Read part two.