FIRST ON FOX: Attorneys for Brian Laundrie’s parents have filed a new motion to dismiss a lawsuit from Gabby Petito’s family that accuses them and their lawyer Steve Bertolino of inflicting emotional distress following her strangling death in the Wyoming wilderness.
Joseph Petito and Nichole Schmidt filed the lawsuit against Christopher and Roberta Laundrie in March and, in their second amended complaint in December, asked the court to add Bertolino.
Central to the civil lawsuit is an excerpt from the Sept. 14, 2021 statement that Bertolino released to the media regarding what was then believed to be a search for a missing person. The judge denied a prior motion to dismiss last summer.
The full statement is as follows:
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Gabby Petito’s family released this selfie photo with blood on her face their lawyers say was taken shortly before an Aug. 12, 2021 traffic stop in Moab, Utah. A witness had called police to report a domestic assault. (Parker & McConkie)
“This is understandably an extremely difficult time for both the Petito family and the Laundrie family.
It is our understanding that a search has been organized for Miss Petito in or near Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. On behalf of the Laundrie family it is our hope that the search for Miss Petito is successful and that Miss Petito is reunited with her family.
On the advice of counsel the Laundrie family is remaining in the background at this juncture and will have no further comment.”
The lawsuit argues that the statement was “insensitive, cold-hearted and outrageous” and inflicted emotional distress because it led the family to believe Petito could still be alive when, allegedly, the Laundries knew she was already dead.
Read the motion (App users go here)
“Two days [after Bertolino’s statement], the attorney for the Petito family, Richard Stafford from New York, issued a statement to the Laundries in which he said, ‘We believe you know the location of where Brian left Gabby,'” the motion, written by attorney Matt Luka, continues. “Clearly, at that time Plaintiffs did not believe Mr. Bertolino’s statement meant that Ms. Petito was still alive.”
An FBI-led search effort uncovered her remains at a Wyoming campground on Sept. 18.
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The new motion to dismiss also includes two new arguments from the Laundrie lawyers.
“1) Mr. Bertolino’s statements are privileged, so the Laundries cannot be liable for them,” the filing reads. “And 2) the allegations against Mr. Bertolino render the allegations against the Laundries implausible.”
Christopher Laundrie gestures while entering his pickup truck in his driveway in North Port, Florida. Inset: Brian Laundrie as seen in Moab police bodycam video on Aug. 12, 2021. (Fox News Digital, Inset: Moab PD)
The parties were due back in court Tuesday morning.
Laundrie left his parents’ house on Sept. 13 and is believed to have killed himself in the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park. Investigators didn’t find his remains until Oct. 20 after floodwater receded.
GABBY PETITO HOMICIDE: TIMELINE OF DISAPPEARANCE WITH BRIAN LAUNDRIE
Brian Laundrie’s parents, Chris and Roberta Laundrie, are seen outside their home in Sarasota County, Florida on Wednesday, October 19, 2022, ahead of the one-year anniversary of Brian being found dead in a Florida swamp. Chris is carrying Panera Bread bags while Roberta carries a Radio Flyer jigsaw puzzle. Roberta wears a crocheted blanket over her shoulders. (Mark Sims for Fox News Digital)
GABBY PETITO AND BRIAN LAUNDRIE: BOMBSHELL VIDEO EMERGES SHOWING HOURS BEFORE MURDER
Near his remains, the FBI recovered a notebook that contained a handwritten confession.
“I ended her life,” he wrote. “I thought it was merciful, that it is what she wanted, but I see now all the mistakes I made. I panicked. I was in shock.”
The Teton County coroner ruled Petito’s death a homicide by manual strangulation and blunt-force trauma. Laundrie left her in the brush near a campsite they had shared in late August, then drove home from Wyoming to Florida in her van, arriving at his parents’ house on Sept. 1.
A press conference is held by Gabby Petito’s family in Salt Lake City, Utah, Thursday, November 3, 2022. Seated, left to right are Jim Schmidt, Nichole Schmidt, Tara Petito, and Joseph Petito. (Fox News Digital)
Petito’s mother, Nichole Schmidt, reported her missing on Sept. 11 after nearly two weeks trying to contact her daughter to no avail.
In the 10 days between Laundrie’s return home and the missing person report, he went camping with his family at a beach south of St. Petersburg and said nothing publicly about her whereabouts.
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Just days earlier, the couple was involved in a domestic violence stop in Utah – where a witness reported seeing Laundrie hitting Petito and trying to steal her phone outside a grocery store.
Police ultimately split the couple up for the night and filed no charges – a decision that led Petito’s parents to file a separate wrongful death lawsuit against the Moab Police Department.
