Gabby Petito’s father condemned Utah police officers, who in an attempt to throw out his family’s $50 million lawsuit against them for their alleged failure to save his daughter, described 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.
Her father, Joseph Petito, slammed the department for believing that his family was after a quick check.
“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.
“When law enforcement fails to follow the law, fails to protect and refuses to learn from its mistakes, like the Moab Police Department, it puts us all at risk.”
The Petito family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against members of the Moab Police Department in 2022, accusing the officers of not properly investigating the domestic dispute between Petito and Laundrie days before her murder.
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 her bruised and bloodied.
The officers never arrested Petito or Laundrie, instead choosing to separate them for the night and leaving Petito in the van the couple had been traveling in while escorting Laundrie to a nearby motel used for domestic abuse survivors.
One of the cops involved would later admit that Laundrie appeared to be an “emotional threat” to Petito, describing him as someone with “more red flags than a Chinese communist rally.”
The Moab police department has denied any wrongdoing, calling on the court to dismiss the case “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 police department ultimately argued that they are safe from the lawsuit under the Utah Governmental Immunity Act, which grants immunity to government agencies in certain cases.
In their opposition brief filed on Tuesday, however, the Petito family argued that their wrongful death claims are well within the scope of the Utah Constitution, calling on the court to declare the immunity act unconstitutional.
“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.
