The legal battle between Gabby Petito‘s parents and the Moab City Police Department continues. And the latest details are bound to have your blood boiling.
As we reported, Nichole Schmidt and Joseph Petito filed a $50 million wrongful death lawsuit against the Moab Police Department in November 2022. They claimed the department’s “negligent hiring and failure to properly train” their officers led to their daughter’s death. Back in August 2021, Gabby and her boyfriend Brian Laundrie were pulled over in Utah after reports of a domestic dispute. The cops decided Gabby was the primary aggressor in the situation, giving her the options of either going to jail or being separated from Brian for the night.
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Mind you, a witness to the incident who called 911 said he saw Brian hitting her — not the other way around! There was even a cut on Gabby’s face, which the officers undoubtedly saw up close! Yet they determined SHE was the main threat. WTF. Ultimately, no arrests were made. The couple were separated for the night before moving on in their trip.
Just days later, Brian strangled Gabby to death.
Amid their wrongful death lawsuit, the Petitos found a lot of alarming new information about how the Moab Police Department handled the situation. For instance, they found the cops made “several unintentional mistakes” when they stopped Gabby and Brian. The parents then learned the head officer, Eric Pratt, knew Brian “was emotionally and mentally abusing Gabby” at the time. Not only that, he realized “Gabby did not in fact assault Brian, and that Brian had used physical force on Gabby by grabbing her face which left a cut on her face.”
Despite determining Brian was “emotionally and mentally” abusive and having a witness who said he attacked Gabby, Pratt still let him go! What’s worse, as we mentioned, is the bodycam footage showed the cop treating HER as the predominant aggressor. It’s even in the report! They clearly made a lot of errors here. And if the Moab police handled the situation differently and helped the actual victim here, there’s a chance that Gabby would still be here today. We’ll never know. Her parents understandably want the department to own up to their fatal mistakes, though! But instead of taking responsibility, they’re fighting back. Hard. What they have to say about the lawsuit is downright disgusting…
According to new court documents obtained by The Us Sun on Monday, the Moab Police Department demanded a dismissal of the wrongful death suit “as a matter of established Utah law.” They said in the filing:
“In this case, Brian Laundrie murdered Petito 15 days after they left Moab together. During that 15-day interval, Petito had her van, keys, and contact with her family. Instead of leaving Laundrie, she drove with her fiancé to Wyoming — 400 miles away from Moab. Moab’s police department did not cause Petito’s engagement to Laundrie, her decision to remain with him, her decision to continue driving to Wyoming, or Laundrie’s criminal conduct weeks later.”
That may be so… But they potentially could have prevented her death if they hadn’t messed up the interrogation and recognized the clear-cut signs and evidence Brian abused Gabby in the moment — instead of blaming her and letting them go. This really comes across as victim-blaming. We mean, are they saying it’s always an abuse victim’s fault when they get murdered? That cops should never try to intervene?!
The department went on to say — and prepare to be infuriated — this:
“Petito’s murder is an undeniable sorrow. Laundrie’s crime was undisputedly depraved. But the judicial system is not a substitute for a GoFundMe campaign; heartbreak is not enough.”
A GOFUNDME CAMPAIGN?!? They did not claim the lawsuit was a cash grab. Are they serious?! The Moab cops clearly screwed up, and yet they’re trying to say they did nothing wrong and accuse the Petito family of just trying to get money! So gross.
The court documents then cited several causes where a crime was committed after a run-in with law enforcement, adding:
“In this case, Laundrie murdered Petito ‘[r]oughly two weeks after’ their interaction with the Moab Police Department. That crime happened hundreds of miles away from Moab ‘at a campsite in Wyoming.’ Moreover, the crime occurred after Moab separated Petito and Laundrie. During that time, Petito had ‘her van,’ where she had been camping. But she did not drive away or leave Laundrie. Indeed, Petito had declared, ‘I don’t want to be separated’ because ‘she and [Laundrie] were ‘a team.’ Given these alleged facts, Plaintiffs cannot establish legal, or proximate, causation as a matter of law.”
Wow.
We can’t believe they refuse to take any accountability for their actions. Hopefully, the Petitos are successful in their legal battle against them because they deserve some justice for what happened to Gabby after the Moab cops’ actions. What are your thoughts on their response to the suit, Perezcious readers? Sound OFF in the comments below.
[Image via FOX 13 Tampa Bay/YouTube]
