This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Former West Valley City police detective Shaun Cowley, who fired the bullet that killed Danielle Willard in 2012, has been cleared by Utah's police regulators.

Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) "has determined there is not sufficient evidence, at this time, to show your conduct constitutes a violation of Utah Code," states a May 4 letter to Cowley. One of his lawyers, Lindsay Jarvis, provided a copy to reporters on Wednesday.

Cowley was fired by the department following his fatal shooting of 21-year-old Danielle Willard during a 2012 undercover operation and a subsequent investigation of the city's narcotics unit. The city was forced to rehire him, and pay him back wages, after Cowley won an administrative appeal. Cowley resigned shortly after winning that appeal, and in February he filed a lawsuit against the city in federal, claiming that he was defamed and suffered emotional distress because of the department's handling of Willard's shooting and misconduct allegations.

In his lawsuit, Cowley accuses department officials of framing him in the scandal and claims he tried to alert his superiors to problems in the drug unit.

Prosecutors charged Cowley with second-degree felony manslaughter for shooting Willard. A judge later dismissed the case against him before it went to trial.

The letter from POST does not describe the allegations that regulators were investigating. Jarvis wrote that Cowley was under review in connection to West Valley City's Neighborhood Narcotics Unit, which was temporarily disbanded after auditors discovered missing and mishandled evidence. Prosecutors threw out about 100 drug cases, some of which have been refiled.

Tyler Ayres, the lawyer representing Cowley in his lawsuit, said Cowley is not working as a police officer and has no plans to be one in the immediate future.

"But he earned that POST certification and it was important for him to maintain it," Ayres said.

Willard's mother, Melissa Kennedy, in a phone interview Wednesday declined to comment, except to say to Cowley, "Good luck."

Kennedy last year complained to the Utah Bar about Jarvis after Jarvis sent her a message on Facebook critical of Willard and which included profanity.

Kennedy on Wednesday, released a letter of her own. This one dated March 24 and from Ellen Maycock, chair of the Utah Bar's Utah Professionalism Counseling Board.

The letter appears to adjudicate Kennedy's complaint. Maycock wrote that Jarvis acknowledged the message was inappropriate and apologized.

"Based on the meeting with Ms. Harding, the Board believes that she sincerely regrets sending the Facebook message," Maycock wrote, "The Board believes she has learned a valuable lesson and will likely not engage in future conduct of this kind."

Nate Carlisle contributed to this report.

Twitter: @erinalberty