Gabby Petito Case: Moab Police in Utah Allegedly Profited From Brian Laundrie's Fiancee Bodycam Video

Thousands of dollars in fees have reportedly been collected by Moab police in Utah from various media organizations in exchange for Gabby Petito's bodycam footage.

According to The Salt Lake Tribune, the city collected nearly $3,000 in exchange for the release of body camera footage of officers pulling over Petito and her fiance, Brian Laundrie, outside of Arches National Park.

The footage shows Moab cops talking to the couple after a reported domestic dispute on August 12. Police were allegedly called after some witnesses reported that Laundrie hit and slapped Petito.

Reports said the officers who spoke with the couple and the witness decided to separate the two for the evening so they could "relax" their emotions.

The Tribune said the fees that Moab police charged in exchange for the footage will be refunded. The amount, totaling around $2,940, was reported to be about three times what the department had expected to collect this year in records fee revenue.

Based on the document obtained by The Tribune, the police department charged a $98 video processing fee to 30 media entities that requested the footage, which seemed to violate Utah law.

Public record law states that agencies can only charge for the "actual costs" of providing a record. City spokesperson Lisa Church declined to directly say that the decision to collect a processing fee for the footage was a mistake.

But Church admitted that it fell outside Moab's normal fee schedule and that the city generally tries to provide records requests from media entities for free. She told The Tribune that she did not know how the police department arrived at the $98 fee amount per request.

Church further noted that even if one person were charged a fee, once a certain document is created, "everybody else should not have been charged."

She said the police department released a second video from the same incident days later for no charge. Church noted that the city intends to refund the fees collected from different news organizations next week.

Moab police reportedly expect to receive $1,000 in records fee in the fiscal year 2021 and budgeted that same amount for the 2022 fiscal year.

Florida Sheriff Says Gabby Petito a Victim of Domestic Violence

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd earlier said they would have arrested Brian Laundrie since Gabby Petito was a victim of domestic violence. The sheriff noted that the incident in Moab on August 12 was a clear domestic violence case.

"I can tell you that according to Florida law, when she (Petito) was the victim of domestic violence originally, he (Laundrie) would have been arrested," Judd said.

In the second body camera video on the same August 12 domestic dispute released by Moab police, Petito told a Utah cop that Laundrie assaulted her after she hit him.

A crying Petito told police that Laundrie "didn't like hit me in the face" or "didn't like punch me," but he cut her "with his nail."

"Well he like, grabbed me with his nail, and I guess that's why it looks, I definitely have a cut right here... I can feel it, when I touch it, it burns," she reportedly said as she rubbed her cheek.

The Moab Police Department came under intense scrutiny for its handling of the couple's dispute. Moab police chief Bret Edge took a leave of absence, and the cops involved had been under investigation.

Deaths of Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie

Gabby Petito disappeared on a cross-country road trip with Brian Laundrie. The couple was traveling to Oregon when the YouTuber stopped communicating with her family in Wyoming in late August.

Laundrie was named a person of interest by North Port police after returning home on September 1 or 10 days before Petito was reported missing by her family.

Petito's body was found at the Spread Creek Dispersed Campground near Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming on September 19.

A Teton County, Wyoming coroner said she was strangled to death by a "human being," and the manner of death was homicide.

On October 20, Laundrie's remains were discovered in a swampy area of the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park. The initial autopsy of his remains did not uncover a cause or manner of his death.

Thus, Steven Bertolino, the Laundrie family attorney, said the skeletal remains of Laundrie were sent to a forensic anthropologist for further examination. He noted that the forensic anthropologist's examination would conclude in two to three weeks.

Forensic anthropologists analyze human remains, conduct DNA tests and look for signs of weapon evidence to help determine how an individual died, whether accidental, suicide, homicide, or natural.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

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