{"id":39021,"date":"2022-08-08T19:09:16","date_gmt":"2022-08-09T01:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/gabby-petitos-family-files-claim-alleging-police-failed-her-at-moab\/"},"modified":"2022-08-09T01:09:16","modified_gmt":"2022-08-09T01:09:16","slug":"gabby-petitos-family-files-claim-alleging-police-failed-her-at-moab","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/gabby-petitos-family-files-claim-alleging-police-failed-her-at-moab\/","title":{"rendered":"Gabby Petito\u2019s family files claim alleging police failed her at Moab"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"In
In this image taken from police body camera video provided by the Moab Police Department, Gabrielle \u201cGabby\u201d Petito talks to a police officer after police pulled over the van she was traveling in with her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, near the entrance to Arches National Park on Aug. 12, 2021. (Moab Police Department via AP file)<\/span>Uncredited<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

SALT LAKE CITY \u2013 Nicole Schmidt vividly remembers the pain she felt watching body camera footage of her daughter Gabby Petito sobbing while Utah police officers questioned her about a fight with her boyfriend.<\/p>\n

The video was released last summer after Petito had gone missing during a cross-country van trip with her boyfriend. Schmidt was desperately looking for her daughter and on the video she saw a young woman crying for help.<\/p>\n

Instead of answering those cries, police in the tourist town of Moab allowed the couple to leave after requiring them to spend one night apart.<\/p>\n

Petito\u2019s strangled body was discovered the next month on the edge of Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. Her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, admitted killing her in a notebook discovered near his body<\/a> in a Florida swamp, where he took his own life, authorities have said.<\/p>\n

The officers\u2019 actions that day are the center of a wrongful-death lawsuit the Petito family announced Monday they plan to file against Moab, arguing the officers\u2019 failed to recognize their daughter was in a life-threatening situation last year and in need of help.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to jump through the screen and rescue her,\u201d said Schmidt, wiping away tears as she appeared by video at a news conference to announce a notice of claim filed Monday.<\/p>\n

After the notice of claim was filed, Moab city government spokesperson Lisa Church declined to comment, saying the city does not comment about pending litigation.<\/p>\n

Notices of claims are required before people can sue government entities and the family\u2019s claim said that the lawsuit will seek $50 million in damages. Moab officials have 60 days to respond before the family can file a lawsuit based on the claim.<\/p>\n

\"In
In this image taken from police body camera video provided by the Moab Police Department, Gabrielle \u201cGabby\u201d Petito talks to a police officer after police pulled over the van she was traveling in with her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, near the entrance to Arches National Park on Aug. 12, 2021. (Moab Police Department via AP file)<\/span>Uncredited<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The family\u2019s lawyer, James McConkie, told reporters in Salt Lake City that \u201cthe officers fail to recognize the serious danger that she was in, and failed to investigate fully and properly.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThey 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Public workers such as police officers typically have immunity from lawsuits in many states, including Utah. Debate over that legal doctrine, known as \u201cqualified immunity,\u201d emerged after police shootings in 2020 and has reached both Congress<\/a> and the U.S. Supreme Court.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Petito family\u2019s attorneys said they planned to argue that applying Utah\u2019s governmental immunity law to wrongful death claims is unconstitutional and a roadblock to accountability.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only effective way to correct these problems is to hold our institutions accountable for failures, including law enforcement,\u201d said another Petito family attorney, Brian Stewart.<\/p>\n

\"In
In this image taken from police body camera video provided by the Moab Police Department, Brian Laundrie talks to a police officer after police pulled over the van he was traveling in with his girlfriend, Gabrielle \u201cGabby\u201d Petito, near the entrance to Arches National Park in Utah on Aug. 12, 2021. (Moab Police Department via AP file)<\/span>Uncredited<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The search for Petito drew worldwide attention, spurring amateur sleuths to scour social media for clues.<\/a> It also brought scrutiny of authorities and the news media<\/a>, both of which have been criticized for focusing more attention on missing white women than on women of color.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, an independent investigation found that police in Moab made \u201cseveral unintentional mistakes\u201d<\/a> when they came across Petito and Laundrie. In the report, police said it was very likely that Petito \u201cwas a long-term victim of domestic violence, whether that be physically, mentally, and\/or emotionally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Petito and Laundrie were originally from Long Island, New York.<\/p>\n

In addition to filing the notice of claim, Schmidt recently announced a $100,000 donation<\/a> from the Gabby Petito Foundation to partner with the National Domestic Violence Hotline to help others survive turbulent and violent relationships.<\/p>\n

Schmidt told The Associated Press<\/a> in an interview last week that she still has many unanswered questions about what went wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking back, I didn\u2019t really see any signs. I think the only two people that will ever know what happened in that relationship was Gabby and Brian. And we can guess and we can make assumptions but we don\u2019t really know what happened,\u201d she said. \u201cMost likely the scenario ended that way because something was happening for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

killed by boyfriend during a cross-country van trip<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39022,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-39021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39021"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=39021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}