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Parent's worst nightmare [Gabby Petito disappearance]

MdRef

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dioxide45

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In this case, I want a lawyer or more like, Mom, I need a lawyer! :eek:
The argument people are making here, is that you ALWAYS want a lawyer, even if you know you are 100% innocent.
 

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The argument people are making here, is that you ALWAYS want a lawyer, even if you know you are 100% innocent.

And you do however, what you don't do, if your innocent, is run and hide. Tends not to leave a good impression. ;)
 

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And you do however, what you don't do, if your innocent, is run and hide. Tends not to leave a good impression. ;)
If you cannot make bail, it may not be a bad move, until all the evidence is gathered:
The promise or expectation of possible benefits from prosecutors creates a strong incentive to lie, and the secretive nature of the jailhouse informant system makes cross-examination and other legal safeguards against unreliable testimony ineffective. In many wrongful convictions, defendants were not given key information related to the credibility of the jailhouse informants who testified against them including the benefits they received, previous cases in which they acted as jailhouse informants, and their criminal history.
It is probably a contributing factor in the disparity of fairness in the legal system between rich and poor defendants. The other is the caseload of the Public Defender's Office.
 

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If you cannot make bail, it may not be a bad move, until all the evidence is gathered:

It is probably a contributing factor in the disparity of fairness in the legal system between rich and poor defendants. The other is the caseload of the Public Defender's Office.

I can assure you that in the case of murder, if that's the charge he may be facing, running and hiding from law enforcement and later on, the judicial process, has eliminated any chance whatsoever of having bail permitted. There would need to be extraordinarily extenuating circumstance(s) involved.

Does disparity of fairness in the legal system between rich and poor defendants take place? Of course. Even with that in mind, I can't see him being a defined as a financialy "poor" defendant. Could I be wrong? Yes. I'm only basing that on news reports and comments made by relatives and acquaintance on those reports.

Also, Brian needs to understand that he has now drawn is family into the case.

Brian’s parent’s, if they assisted him in any way after knowing any details of a crime, could be charged with obstruction of justice. They would need to prove that they limited what they knew or didn't know from him. Something like, 'I don’t want to know’ or maybe he indicated somehow that things weren’t good, but never really shared with them what he was up to.
 

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Also, Brian needs to understand that he has now drawn is family into the case.

Brian’s parent’s, if they assisted him in any way after knowing any details of a crime, could be charged with obstruction of justice. They would need to prove that they limited what they knew or didn't know from him. Something like, 'I don’t want to know’ or maybe he indicated somehow that things weren’t good, but never really shared with them what he was up to.
At the time of his disappearance, I don't believe there was a warrant for his arrest. The police and FBI obtained PC for search warrants of the parent's home after her body was found.

Unless:
  • They had knowledge that he did it.
  • They actively participated in him hiding after he was sought for police custody.
Again, IDK if his parents cannot be compelled to talk to the police.
 

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Again, IDK if his parents cannot be compelled to talk to the police.
I would think the only way they can be compelled to speak would be if they were subpoenaed to appear as a witness in a case?
 

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I would think the only way they can be compelled to speak would be if they were subpoenaed to appear as a witness in a case?
Probably, but I bet their lawyer would be all over the PC of subpoena to limit its scope.
 

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A warrant for Brian has now been issued. I understand the arrest warrant has to do with Brian using Gabby's ATM card after her demise (i.e. unauthorized use). At least this will allow him to be held in place until they can bring additional charges.

Now the real issue is: "Where" is Brian? A warrant is of no use if they can't find the defendant to serve it........



.
 

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A warrant for Brian has now been issued. I understand the arrest warrant has to do with Brian using Gabby's ATM card after her demise (i.e. unauthorized use). At least this will allow him to be held in place until they can bring additional charges.

Now the real issue is: "Where" is Brian? A warrant is of no use if they can't find the defendant to serve it........



.
I predict they will find him, one way or another.
 

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One of the biggest breaks in the case came from social media and now, some have placed a "bounty" on you.

The Boohoff law firm, with offices in Florida, is offering a reward for information leading to the whereabouts of Brian Laundrie. Laundrie is the North Port man who is a person of interest in the disappearance of his fiancée, homicide victim Gabby Petito

The law firm is offering a $20,000 reward to the first person that offers information that directly leads to finding Laundrie.
 

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This case brings to light an interesting question. How far would you be willing to go to protect your child in a case like this?

Because they now have an indictment, even though not for murder and this being a federal case, Brian’s parents can and may soon be summoned to a appear before a federal grand jury. Doing so, takes this up a few notches. While they or their lawyer(s) can still invoke their Miranda right to remain silent, many would question why.

The public now knows that Brian used Gabby's debit card after the time of her death. This shows that she was unable to give her permission to use her card. which helps us understand the indictment for "unauthorized use". Evidence must point to that she was dead at that time.
 

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This case brings to light an interesting question. How far would you be willing to go to protect your child in a case like this?

Because they now have an indictment, even though not for murder and this being a federal case, Brian’s parents can and may soon be summoned to a appear before a federal grand jury. Doing so, takes this up a few notches. While they or their lawyer(s) can still invoke their Miranda right to remain silent, many would question why.

The public now knows that Brian used Gabby's debit card after the time of her death. This shows that she was unable to give her permission to use her card. which helps us understand the indictment for "unauthorized use". Evidence must point to that she was dead at that time.
How far would you go to protect your child?

I am a proponent of doing the right thing. Sure, get a lawyer, but talk to police. I would counsel my kid, the truth will come out. Get it over with vs letting the stress eat you.

I wouldn't be surprised if his trip to the woods was to off himself. no wallet, no phone. No phone, I understand, since it is a tracking device. No money means all he had was what he was carrying.

Whatever happened, what has happened since, is tough to live with. If you're pretty sure you're going to prison, well, not unthinkable to be done with it. I sadly have a cousin that killed himself when he got Alzheimer's diagnosis. People make their choices as to what they can handle in the coming years.

For all we know, his parents begged him to turn himself in. Both sets of parents are living some hell.
 

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Is Gabby Petito / Brian Laundrie case an example of “Missing White Woman Syndrome?"

 

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Maybe ask Dr Phil for his 2cents as he had her dad on before her body was found.

Perhaps make a different topic for the below.


Is Gabby Petito / Brian Laundrie case an example of “Missing White Woman Syndrome?"

 

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I don't believe that conversations between parents and children are privileged (without having researched the issue)
If that is the case, the parents could be subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury. If they claim the 5th Amendment, they would receive immunity if they are compelled to testify. They do not have immunity if they perjure themselves during their testimony, because that is a separate crime.

I don't know the answer to these questions:
1. Did the parent or the attorney falsely tell the police that Brian was home when in fact he had already left?
2. Did the parents have reasonable grounds to believe that Brian was hiking in the park when they reported that to the police?

Without knowing these answers, it is hard to know whether the parents acted in any way improperly.

One hard question is that assuming Brian admitted to his parents where Gabby's body was hidden, and Brian said that he didn't want the parents to tell the police, should the parents have told the police anyway. Hopefully, none of us will be in a position where we will have to make a decision like that.
 

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Brian Laundrie parks van, walks in house. The music starts..

"Mamaaa,
Just killed a man,
Put a gun against his head, pulled my trigger,
Now he's dead
Mamaaa, life had just begun,
But now I've gone and thrown it all away
Mama, oooh,
Didn't mean to make you cry,
If I'm not back again this time tomorrow,
Carry on, carry on as if nothing really matters"

Parents, in unison,

Honey, we'll get lawyered up, stall the police, get you a burner phone, ten grand in used twenties and leave your car by the park to put the po po on the wrong track.....
 

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McEwan is equally doubtful that Laundrie’s body could be in there, undiscovered by police search squads — or the even more precise vultures.
“Anything dead you find in the woods, you’re gonna look up, you’re gonna see buzzards flying like crazy,” he told Fox News, saying you’d get up to 100 of them for “nothing but a squirrel.”
“No buzzards, no body … And I haven’t seen any buzzards flying,” he said.
He is also skeptical of theories that Laundrie could have been eaten by alligators, saying, “Gators out here are more afraid of you than you are of them.”

Adding to his suspicions that the wanted man was never really there, McEwan noted how Laundrie’s parents have not tried to help hunt for their son even though they live nearby.\
“I’d be out there right now looking for them — if that’s where I thought he was,” he told Fox News Digital.
“I would go nuts. I wouldn’t be out mowing my lawn, I could promise you that. That’s the last place I’d be,” McEwen said.
 

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This (San Francisco Bay Area) news anchor felt strongly about the underlying issues with news coverage --

=====

According to station sources, Somerville, 63, has been “suspended indefinitely” by Channel 2 management after a disagreement with news director Amber Eikel over coverage of this story.
The disagreement, said sources, occurred earlier in the week after the body of Petito was discovered in Wyoming. Petito, 22, had been reported missing earlier this month while on a cross-country camping trip. The FBI has issued an arrest warrant for Brian Laundrie, Petito’s 23-year-old fiancé.
KTVU was prepared to air a news report detailing the latest developments in the case. Somerville wanted to add a brief tagline at the end of the report that questioned the extraordinary level of media coverage devoted to the story. Sources said he wanted to point out that the U.S. media often disproportionately covers tragedies involving young White women, while largely ignoring similar cases involving women of color and Indigenous people.


Somerville is the adoptive father of a Black teen daughter.

The veteran anchor was told that the tagline was inappropriate and he apparently pushed back on it. There was no word on how heated the discussion got.

Sources said that Somerville was informed by station management the next day that he was being suspended. A station spokesperson could not be reached as of Friday evening, and Eikel declined to comment.

Somerville was off the air for more than nine weeks before returning in August to Channel 2’s “The Ten O’Clock News” without addressing his unusual absence. Since then, Fox and station management have refused to publicly speak to the issue.

This latest incident, coming just six weeks after Somerville’s return to the anchor desk, will undoubtedly trigger speculation about his future with the station. He’s one of the highest paid anchors in the Bay Area, but his contract is up in March. Somerville has said in the past that he wants to work “two or three more years” and would like to finish his career at KTVU.

Meanwhile, the media coverage issue Somerville had hoped to raise has garnered plenty of attention in recent days as debate rages over how much is too much. MSNBC host Joy Reid criticized her own industry on her prime-time program, calling the Petito coverage an example of “missing White woman syndrome,” a term coined by the late PBS anchor Gwen Ifill to describe the media’s often lopsided focus on white women and girls when they go missing.

An ABC News report, citing statistics from the FBI’s National Crime Information Center stated that at the end of 2020, the FBI had more than 89,000 active missing person cases, and 45 percent of those were people of color.

The ABC News report also said that only about one-fifth of missing person cases involving minorities are covered by the news, according to a 2016 analysis
 

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Oh, this is definitely a case of missing yt woman syndrome. God bless Gwen's heart for giving it a name. Even earlier in this thread, I pointed this out....and got very few comments in return. *sigh*
 

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I always thought that cases like these, and even ones where coverage is local are rather strange. They have a funeral for the person and thousands of people show up. Did these people really have all these connections to the individual or the family? Would the same people have shown up if it were not for all the TV coverage? It just seems that society as a whole clings to these things in an odd way. If I didn't know the person or have any personal connection to the family, I certainly wouldn't show up at the memorial or funeral for their child. Same kind of goes for the people who have put up money for Brian's capture. It seems there is enough coverage and resources already on this, that if someone saw him they would be willing to turn him in for free. That reward money could be better spent elsewhere on other cases.

I also find the term "America's Daughter" in referring to Gabby to be very strange. I don't doubt she was loved by many and what happened is sad and is tragic. That said, the term doesn't seem to sit right.
 
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