Judge dismisses Gabby Petito family’s wrongful death suit against Moab police
Nov 20, 2024, 1:00 PM
Police body camera video provided by the Moab Police Department shows Gabby Petito talking to a police officer on Aug. 12, 2021. A wrongful death lawsuit filed by her family against the Moab Police Department was dismissed on Wednesday. (Moab Police Department)
(Moab Police Department)
MOAB — A wrongful death lawsuit filed by Gabby Petito’s parents against the Moab Police Department was dismissed on Wednesday, but the issue isn’t over.
Judson Burton, the parents’ attorney, argued the ability to file a wrongful death claim was built into Utah’s constitution and the governmental immunity statute it was dismissed under is unconstitutional.
Utah’s 7th District Court Judge Don Torgerson explained before dismissing the case that he is bound to follow the law as it currently exists and follow rulings of other courts — but the Court of Appeals has the authority to consider whether the governmental immunity law is constitutional.
He ruled the police department does have governmental immunity from the lawsuit, saying “I don’t see how they are possibly exempted.”
Torgerson did, however, rule the lawsuit from Petito’s parents did meet the standard required early in a case to show that Moab’s officers’ conduct could have been a cause of her death, saying, at this stage, inferences are made in favor of the person who filed the case.
Gabby Petito, a 22-year-old self-proclaimed travel influencer who was traveling the country in a van with her fiancé, was reported missing on Sept. 11, 2021, a few weeks after Moab Police spoke with them regarding a domestic violence incident.
Her body was found on Sept. 19 that year at the Spread Creek Dispersed Camping Area in Wyoming’s Bridger-Teton National Forest. Investigators ruled Petito died from blunt force trauma and strangulation.
Her fiancé, Brian Laundrie went missing following the discovery. In a notebook later found near his body at a nature preserve in Sarasota County, Florida, Laundrie admitted to killing Gabby Petito. An autopsy showed Laundrie died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Petito’s parents, Joseph Petito and Nichole Schmidt, filed a lawsuit against Moab Police in November 2022. Their attorney, Burton, argued on Wednesday that Gabby Petito called her parents during the interaction with police and they wanted her to come home, but Gabby assured them the police would take care of things.
Read the full story at ksl.com.
