The attorney representing Gabby Petito’s parents in a lawsuit against Brian Laundrie’s parents has retracted the motion to have the suspected killer’s lawyer testify.
The plaintiffs have been pushing for Laundrie family lawyer, Steve Bertolino, to testify about what Brian Laundrie told him in connection with Gabby’s murder before Brian took his own life.
Bertolino, named as a co-defendant in the lawsuit, said that attorney/client privilege existed and that the argument “was not backed by the law or the facts,” according to Fox News Digital.
“Had attorney Reilly researched the law he would have known this before he filed the motion,” Bertolino told Patch. “Pat Reilly (Petito family lawyer) got the publicity he wanted from filing the motion but once my attorneys filed a substantively superior response, he had little choice but to withdraw it.”
As CrimeOnline previously reported, Gabby’s parents, Joseph Petito and Nicole Schmidt, filed an emotional distress lawsuit against Brian Laundrie’s parents, Roberta and Chris Laundrie, following Gabby’s murder.
Gabby vanished in August 2021 while on a cross-country road trip with boyfriend, Brian Laundrie. Her remains were found at a campsite in the Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming on September 19, 2021. Authorities concluded that she died by manual strangulation.
Bertolino Amended Response by Leigh Egan
After murdering Petito, Laundrie is believed to have driven the van the couple was traveling in back to his parents’ home in North Port, Florida, where he arrived on September 1 alone.
Laundrie later drove to a nearby nature reserve in Florida about 10 minutes from his parents’ home, where he committed suicide. Investigators recovered what appeared to be a written confession by Laundrie that he murdered Petito.
The plaintiffs claim that Bertolino knew about Gabby’s murder, after a “frantic” call Brian Laundrie made to his parents in August 2021. The parents, subsequently, hired Bertolino that same month.
Bertolino acknowledged that the Laundrie couple contacted him on August 21, 2021, and sought legal representation in connection with Brian, who told his parents in the August 2021 phone call that “Gabby was ‘gone’ and he needed a lawyer.”
Bertolino denied the allegations of knowing about Gabby’s death, although he issued a statement claiming that he and the Laundrie family hope that “the search for Miss Petito is successful and that Miss Petito is reunited with her family.”
The statement was made before Gabby’s remains were found. Bertolino issued an additional statement afterward, explaining that that initial statement was provided as a “public response” after numerous demands.
“The purpose of the statement was to provide a public response to escalating pressure from Plaintiffs, law enforcement, the press, and the public who were all demanding that Defendants Christopher and Roberta Laundrie provide information,” reads the document.
In a statement to WFLA-TV, Reilly said that he no longer thinks Bertolino’s testimony will be necessary to build the case. Following the withdrawal of the motion, the December 20 hearing has been called off.
Members of the Laundrie and Petito families have been questioned in depositions over the past several months as part of the civil case filed against the Laundrie couple in 2022.
In a separate wrongful-death lawsuit brought by Petito’s family, Brian Laundrie’s estate agreed to pay a $3 million settlement last year.
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[Feature Photo: Gabby Petito/Instagram]
