Utah Police Accuse Gabby Petitio’s Family Of Wanting To Make A Quick Buck

Daily Report July 12,2024

The family of Gabby Petito called out Utah cops for trying to dismiss their $50 million lawsuit, accusing them in court papers filed Friday of botching a chance to save the young woman.

As a response, the police dubbed the suit as “a substitute for a GoFundMe campaign.”

The Moab Police Department demanded the lawsuit be dismissed, refuting claims that their officers failed to act appropriately when they interviewed a distressed Petito on Aug. 12, 2021 — days before she was killed by her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie.

“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,” the department wrote in its recently released filing.

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Yet, in the case of Petito, her murder is truly a tragedy. The depravity of the crime committed by Laundrie is not in question. The department said in its recent filing that the judicial system is not a GoFundMe campaign.

Joseph Petito, her father countered the department vehemently denying that his family is looking for a quick buck.

“Moab still doesn’t get it. This case has never been about money,” he said in a statement to The Post Thursday.

“It has always been about seeking accountability and fighting for change that will save lives,” he added.

The Petito family filed a wrongful death lawsuit in 2022 that claimed the Moab Police Department did not conduct an adequate investigation when officers responded to Laundrie and Petito fighting days before her murder.

A witness said they saw Laundrie “slapping his girlfriend” earlier in the day but police ruled Petito was the “primary aggressor” during their fight, despite visible bruises on her body.

The police did not arrest Petito or Laundrie, but they pulled them apart for the night. She slept in their van and he was taken to a nearby hotel that shelters domestic abuse survivors.

One of the officers later conceded that Laundrie looked to be an “emotional threat” to Petito, and called him “more red flags than a Chinese communist rally.”

The Moab Police Department argues in its court filings that it did nothing wrong, and has asked the court to dismiss Castillo’s lawsuit “as a matter of established Utah law.”

“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,” the filing reads.

The department argued that the suit is barred by the Utah Governmental Immunity Act, which provides immunity to government entities in many circumstances.

In a brief opposing the claim filed earlier this week, Petito’s family said the immunity act goes well beyond what is intended in Utah Constitution and urged it to invalidate the Act.

“Doing so will return Utah law to its original understanding and restore to those within this state the protections intended by Utah’s founders,” the Parker & McConkie law firm, representing the Petitos, said in the filing.