A Florida judge approved a request to add Brian Laundrie’s former attorney Steve Bertolino to a lawsuit against his parents Tuesday.
Joseph Petito and Nichole Schmidt, Gabby’s parents, originally filed the lawsuit against Christopher and Roberta Laundrie earlier this year, accusing the couple of knowing that their son murdered Gabby and being aware of the location of her remains but refusing to speak.
The lawsuit also alleges that the parents were attempting to arrange a way for their son to flee the country.
A key aspect at the heart of the lawsuit is a Sept. 14, 2021, statement that Bertolino shared with the media on behalf of the Laundrie parents.
Chris and Roberta Laundrie walk through the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park the morning their son’s remains were found. Inset: Attorney Steve Bertolino
(Michael Ruiz/Fox News Digital, Inset: Stephanie Pagones/Fox News Digital)
Pat Reilly, the lawyer for Petito and Schmidt, has alleged the statement is “outrageous,” and the lawsuit alleges that at the time it was made, the Laundries and their lawyer were aware that their son had killed Petito.
Judge Danielle Brewer granted the motion for leave to amend the lawsuit for a second time – allowing the Petito-Schmidt team to add Bertolino to the suit.
“The decision was not unexpected,” he told Fox News Digital after the hearing. “This incident, like all others, will work out in the end. One way or the other.”
Read the motion (App users go here)
Petito’s family last heard from her in the end of August 2021, two weeks after a 911 caller in Utah reported seeing Laundrie hitting her in public.
A press conference is held by Gabby Petito’s family in Salt Lake City, Utah, Thursday, November 3, 2022. The family is filing a wrongful death suit against Moab Police Department. Seated, left to right are Jim Schmidt, Nichole Schmidt, Tara Petito, and Joseph Petito.
(Fox News Digital)
Her last known location was near Jackson, Wyoming, on Aug. 28. On Sept. 1, Laundrie arrived at his parents’ house in Florida driving Petito’s van.
She was not with him.
Her parents reported her missing on Sept. 11.
Gabby Petito poses for an Instagram photo in Bryce Canyon National Park.
(Family of Gabby Petito)
An FBI-led search recovered her body outside Jackson on Sept. 19, and the Teton County coroner ruled that her death was a homicide by manual strangulation and blunt-force trauma to the head and neck.
GABBY PETITO AND BRIAN LAUNDRIE: BOMBSHELL VIDEO EMERGES SHOWING HOURS BEFORE MURDER
Police in Moab, Utah, stopped Brian Laundrie on Aug. 12 after he allegedly slapped Gabby Petito in public.
(Moab City Police Department)
Laundrie had snuck out of his parents’ house on Sept. 13 and went to Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park, where his remains were found on Oct. 20, 2021 – after weeks of futile searches in a temporarily flooded park.
Police found him after water levels receded, along with a handwritten confession and a revolver.
The FBI said he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Gabby Petito’s parents and stepparents during an Oct. 7, 2021 interview regarding the then-active search for Brian Laundrie, who is suspected of killing their daughter in Wyoming before returning to his parents’ house in Florida and killing himself in a swamp nearby.
(Fox News)
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The families of Gabby and Brian agreed to a $3 million settlement last year in the Petito family’s wrongful death lawsuit against Brian Laundrie’s estate.
Gabby’s family has also filed a $50 million wrongful death lawsuit against the Moab Police Department, alleging that officers failed to properly handle a 911 call after a witness claimed he saw Brian hitting Gabby and trying to steal her phone just weeks before her death. The lawsuit names the department, two officers who responded to the call and two former leaders.
