Florida Judge Rejects Brian Laundrie Attorneys’ Request To Limit Scope Of Questioning In Gabby Petito’s Family’s Depositions

A judge in Florida shot down on Thursday the attempts of Brian Laundrie’s parents to narrow the line of questioning related to a lawsuit put forward by the parents of Gabby Petito, who claimed that the parents were aware of what Laundrie had done to Petito.

Judge Hunter Carroll shot down the request from the Laundries and their attorneys to narrow the questioning, where the Laundries’ attorneys claimed that public interest did not give a good enough justification to increase the scope of questioning for the incident, according to Fox News.

“Chris and Roberta Laundrie will answer whatever questions they can, and they will invoke all rights and privileges they are entitled to,” Steve Bartolino, one of the lawyers on the case, said.

The Laundries have previously used their right to remain silent after Petito was declared missing and before her body was found by authorities.

Petito’s parents believed that the Laundries actually knew that she was dead long before her body had been found due to being informed by their son Brian, who ended up killing himself after a manhunt ensued. They also claimed that the family had potentially slowed down the search after refusing to tell officers what they knew about the case, NBC News reported.

They have also taken offense over a statement that the Laundrie family released after the missing person case was filed where they expressed “hope” that Petito would be found, which Patrick Reilly, an attorney for the Petito family, called “audacious.”

The Petito family was recently awarded a $3 million settlement for a separate civil suit for the wrongful death of Gabby Petito, which they will reportedly give towards the Gabby Petito Foundation, established after the young woman had died.

“The Petito family lost their daughter, and they were also denied the opportunity to confront her killer. No amount of money is sufficient to compensate the Petito family for the loss of their daughter, Gabby, at the hands of Brian Laundrie,” Reilly said.

Petito’s death has been ruled a homicide due to “manual strangulation."