The first hearing in the lawsuit Gabby Petito‘s family filed against Brian Laundrie‘s parents took place on Wednesday — but did it change anything?
Well, apparently not for Christopher and Roberta Laundrie, who couldn’t even be bothered to show up!
Their longtime attorney Steven Bertolino spoke to reporter Brian Entin from NewsNation on Wednesday night following the pre-trial hearing at the Sarasota County Court. Entin, who has doggedly covered the case from the beginning, held the lawyer’s feet to the fire on the idea that his clients did “what most people would and should do in such a situation.” After all, it was Bertolino who supposedly advised them to keep quiet about everything. He asked:
“Because they haven’t been in trouble so far… do you have any regrets? Do you think you should have had them talk to the media or perhaps seem a little more human? Even though you protected them legally, do you think you made any mistakes along the way since now they are, in many ways, it seems hated by the world?”
Bertolino said it was a “very good question” — but then proceeded to try to flip the script, saying:
“You know, hated is one word, vilified is another … It’s emotional for me, it’s emotional for Chris and Roberta because we are friends, they did lose a child. They lost a young man that I knew since he was born and yeah, that’s upsetting.”
Mm-hmm. They did lose a child. But it’s going to be tough for them to garner any sympathy for it considering how they treated the Petitos’ loss of a child — a young woman who lived with them for many months, who was supposed to be part of their family, too.
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The attorney finally addressed the question of regret, saying:
“I did everything the right way. We have no regrets. The parents did everything the right way, and they have no regrets.”
We have no regrets. That’s interesting. We haven’t thought about Bertolino as an agent in this, we’ve just assumed he was giving purely legal advice. Does the fact he was so much closer with Brian than we realized change our view of his role in all this? We mean, he told them to keep quiet about what they knew — allegedly where and when their son had murdered Gabby. Huh.
Well, on that aspect Bertolino would not say anymore, getting just as cagey as they’ve been the whole time:
“What I knew, or what Chris and Roberta knew, we did not have to disclose, to any third party, and specifically to law enforcement, or the Petito family.”
But… why? How is that not obstruction of justice?? Guess we need to go back to law school (aka put on some old SVU episodes).
Bertolino added cryptically:
“I can tell you what I knew … perhaps, one day what Brian knew, but none of that’s gonna happen tonight on this show.”
Great.
What do YOU think of Bertolino? See the attorney’s full interview (below):
The post Brian Laundrie's Parents Have 'No Regrets' About How They Handled Gabby Petito's Death appeared first on Perez Hilton.