State bars former Brandeis officer after student suicide case

A former campus police officer at Brandeis University has been permanently decertified by state officials following her role in the response to a student’s death in 2023. 

Kimberly Carter, a veteran Brandeis officer with more than 20 years of experience, is accused in a lawsuit of failing to act appropriately on a report of a student in distress.

The incident began Dec. 3, 2023, when a university professor reported seeing what appeared to be a person lying in the woods near the campus chapels. The report was relayed to Carter, but the lawsuit alleges it was not treated as an urgent emergency and did not prompt an immediate search of the area.

The Brandeis student, Eli Stuart from Texas, died by suicide and was later found in that wooded area more than 12 hours after the distress call. Stuart’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit in 2024 against the university and several individuals, including Carter, alleging negligence and arguing that a fast, thorough response could have changed the outcome. Carter resigned from her position a week after the incident. On April 16, the Massachusetts Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission voted to permanently decertify her, barring her from ever working as a police officer in Massachusetts.