Gabby Petito’s death was caused by negligence on the part of the Moab City Police Department. According to her parents, they believe so, as Monday’s announcement by their attorneys that they would be filing a $50,000,000 wrongful death suit against the Moab city police department, the officers who worked with her in the days prior to her death, as well two former leaders of the department.
According to the family, Moab officers Eric Pratt & Daniel Robbins failed properly to respond to a 911 call on Aug. 12, 2021 in which a witness claimed he saw Brian Laundrie hitting Petito. He also tried to take her cell phone and drive away without her.
Officers who responded in Utah to the call showed that Petito was the primary aggressor. They classified the incident as disorderly conduct using body camera footage. They separated Petito and his wife for the night but never filed charges.
“The officers failed to recognize the serious danger that she was in, and failed to investigate fully and properly,” the family’s attorney, James McConkie, told reporters. “They did not have the training that they needed to recognize the clear signs that were evident that morning, that Gabby was a victim and that she was in serious need of immediate help.”
Moab’s spokesperson The Los Angeles Times They declined to comment on it, stating that the city does not comment in the case.
Laundrie later murdered Petito that month. Her remains were found in September 2021 at Bridger–Teton National Forest in Wyoming. Laundrie was found to have taken his own life after authorities on Sept. 23, 2021 issued an arrest warrant for him for his unauthorized use of Petito’s debit card. In January, the FBI announced that Laundrie had admitted to murdering Petito in a notebook located near his Florida remains. The couple, originally from Long Island in New York, were engaged and were traveling across the U.S. in a van.
Petito’s mother and father said they are bringing the lawsuit to honor their daughter’s legacy by working to save the lives of domestic violence victims. They also wanted to see changes made to the handling of cases like that of their daughter’s.
Though police officers typically have immunity from lawsuits in many states, including Utah, attorneys for Petito’s family said they plan to argue that applying Utah’s governmental immunity law to wrongful death claims is unconstitutional and serves as a roadblock to accountability.
“The only effective way to correct these problems is to hold our institutions accountable for failures, including law enforcement,”Brian Stewart, Petito family lawyer said.