After being sued for allegedly knowing about Gabby Petito’s murder, Brian Laundrie’s parents provide the family with a confidential settlement.
In August 2021, Gabby Petito, 22, was killed by her lover Brian Laundrie, 23, as they were travelling cross-country.
In advance of the civil trial scheduled for next year, Brian Laundrie’s family has made a covert settlement offer to the parents of slain Gabby Petito.
Joe Petito and Nichole Schmidt received a proposal from the Laundries’ attorney, Steven Bertolino, for an undisclosed sum.
Prior to the civil trial scheduled for next year, Brian Laundrie’s family made a covert settlement offer to the parents of slain Gabby Petito.
Joe Petito and Nichole Schmidt received a proposal from the Laundries’ attorney, Steven Bertolino, for an undisclosed sum.
According to Bertolino, “settlement, discussions, and proposals are all parts of the process with every civil litigation.”
“This situation is not unique.”
A representative for Gabby’s parents told the media that she would not be commenting because the offer was ‘secret’.
In August 2021, 22-year-old Gabby Petito disappeared after setting off on a cross-country journey with her 23-year-old lover Brian Laundrie.
Police identified Laundrie as a person of interest in Petitio’s disappearance after she left for home in Flordia without her.
A month later, the strangled body of Petito was discovered in Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park.After confessing to killing Petito in a letter, Laundrie was discovered dead in Florida’s Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park a few weeks later.
Laundrie’s mother promised in a letter to her son before he passed away to assist him in burying a body and making an escape from prison.
According to Petito’s parents, this is proof that she and her son conspired to cover up their daughter’s horrible death.
She offered to bake her son a cake with a file inside if he was sent to prison, according to the undated letter, which Roberta told her son to “burn after reading.”
As an additional sign of her devotion for her son, Roberta promised to assist him in disposing of a dead.
I simply want you to know that I love you and that you will continue to love me.
It’s my boy, you.
Nothing will ever be able to stop me from loving you, and nothing will ever be able to separate us, Roberta stated in the letter.
We shall always love one other, regardless of what we do, where we go, or what we say.
“I’ll bake a cake with a file in it if you’re behind bars,” I said.
I’ll arrive with a shovel and trash bags if you need to dispose of a body.
The verb ‘bring’ was crossed out in the clause.
The Laundries are accused of knowing about Gabby’s death but choosing to keep quiet, causing untold mental harm to her parents, according to the civil case, which also names their attorney Bertolino as a defendant.
The case’s depositions started last month, and a jury trial is scheduled for May 2024.
Additionally, Petito’s parents have sued the Moab City Police Department for $50 million for failing to apprehend Laundrie after they saw Petito bloodied and in distress during a fight days prior to her passing.
The lawsuit used transcripts of an interview with a Moab police officer who stopped the couple following a call from Petito alleging that Laundrie had attacked her.
By neglecting to make an arrest, the officer Eric Pratt and his department are accused of failing to respect their obligations as peace officers, despite the fact that Pratt later admitted to other police that Laundrie had raised “more red flags than a Chinese communist rally.”
According to a law in Utah, every officer involved in a domestic disturbance must make an arrest or write a citation.
During a recent independent investigation, Pratt was questioned about the event and admitted to police that he had thought Laundrie posed a danger to Petito’s safety at the time.
The officer, who is still employed by the department, allegedly said as much to a Price police captain during an independent investigation into the event that was sparked by the failure to make an arrest.
I believed he posed a psychological threat to her.
The interview’s transcripts, which were created by Petito’s parents, also indicated how Pratt broke police protocol by releasing Laundrie even though he had warned Price Police captain Brandon Ratcliffe that the potential killer had displayed “red flags.”
According to the lawsuit, Pratt allegedly informed Ratcliffe that Laundrie was “a weird, not healthy dude” who “looked unsavoury.”
According to body camera footage of the event, Petito told Pratt and officers Laundrie had grabbed her face while pointing towards her neck.
She was noticeably scared throughout the entire confrontation.
The bruises Petito received before to the traffic stop is also visible in a photo supplied by the attorneys representing Gabby’s family, who are preparing a lawsuit against the Moab police department.
Even after calling 911, Pratt did not appear to consider Laundrie to be a suspect despite meeting both Petito and Laundrie face-to-face throughout the interaction.
Gabby is wearing the same outfits in the bodycam video as she did in the selfie.
According to the amended lawsuit, he claimed, “I took my 16 years of experience and said I believed Gabby based on the totality of circumstances and based on what she appears physically capable of and based off what I saw him doing and acting the way he was acting, I don’t think she assaulted him.”
Pratt allegedly continued by telling Ratcliffe, “I thought he was an emotional threat to her,” according to the complaint.
I believed he posed a psychological threat to her.
Laundrie displayed “more red flags than a Chinese communist rally,” he continued.
Despite this, Pratt and his partner Daniel Robbins ultimately decided to separate the couple for the night rather than make an arrest.
They drove Laundrie to a nearby motel as part of a programme for domestic violence survivors while leaving Petito to sleep in the couple’s camper van.
In Ratcliffe’s description of his questioning of Pratt, he criticises the seasoned officer for making the choice after Petito told police that Laundrie had slapped her before she placed her hands on his face.
The fact that Gabby was found to be the main aggressor in this event does not necessarily suggest that she was the main aggressor over the course of the relationship, according to Ratcliffe.
Despite believing Petito to be the aggressor, the Price police captain continued, Pratt confided in him that he believed the two had given’strangely consistent’ accounts of Laundrie putting his hands on Petito’s face in their respective testimonies.
The department, two officers who responded to the call, and two former officers are all included in the case.
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