Gabby Petito family lawsuit against Utah cops a ‘publicity stunt,’ police lawyer says
The lawyer representing the Utah cops sued over their handling of a domestic violence incident involving Gabby Peito and her killer Brian Laundrie called the lawsuits’ demand for $50 million a “publicity stunt” by Petito’s family.
Mitchell Stephens, a high-profile business attorney in Salt Lake City representing the members of the Moab Police Department sued in November 2022 by Petito’s parents, said that the department “did not cause Brian Laundrie to murder Gabrielle Petito.”
The officers are accused in the wrongful death lawsuit of not properly investigating the domestic dispute between Petito and Laundrie, her boyfriend, on Aug. 12. 2021 that occurred weeks before he killed the 22-year-old aspiring “van life” travel influencer.
However, Stephens said the officers who responded to the domestic dispute acted with “kindness and respect” in an interview with the US Sun.
He also branded the family’s $50 million lawsuit against the department an overreach after Petito’s family was awarded $3 million from the estate of Brian Laundrie in November in a separate lawsuit.
“Even if the plaintiffs believe that Moab City is liable, it strains credibility to suggest the City is 15-20 times more responsible for Ms. Petito’s death than Brian Laundrie, her murderer,” Stephen said.
Although an eyewitness on the day of the incident said they saw Laundrie “slapping his girlfriend,” cops deemed Petito the “primary aggressor” in the dispute, which left Petito bruised and bloodied.
The officers did not arrest Petito or Laundrie and opted instead to separate them for the night, leaving Petito in the van the couple had been traveling in and escorting Laundrie to a nearby motel used for domestic abuse survivors. One of the cops later admitted that Laundrie appeared to be an “emotional threat” to Petito and said he had “more red flags than a Chinese communist rally.”
Brian Stewart, a lawyer representing Petito’s familly, previously said that the officers failed to properly investigate the domestic dispute and therefore failed to adequately respond to Petito’s life-threatening situation.
Gabby was “attempting to take the blame for the fight because she had hit Brian first and did not want to be separated from him,” Petito’s family claimed in the lawsuit. “Whether for lack of training or refusal to follow their training, the officers did not press further.”
A third suit filed by Petito’s parents, this one claiming that Laundrie’s parents covered up the murder, is set to be tried in May 2024 in Sarasota County, Florida.
Petito’s body was found in a remote section of Wyoming forest just outside of Grand Teton National Park on Sept. 19, 2021. A Blue Point native, last spoke to her family on Aug. 25, 2021 and pair of YouTubers spotted her van near Grand Teton two days later.
Her mother, Nichole Schmidt, reported her missing on Sept. 11, and, several days later, Laundrie was identified as a person of interest.
