Online marketplace Letgo sued after Denver-area slayings

DENVER (AP) — The web market Letgo is going through a wrongful dying lawsuit after the dad and mom of 5 youngsters have been fatally shot and robbed whereas utilizing the app to attempt to purchase a used SUV in suburban Denver in 2020.

The lawsuit filed in federal courtroom Thursday on behalf of the victims’ household claims Letgo, which has been acquired by OfferUp, was negligent as a result of it allowed the alleged shooter to turn out to be a “verified vendor” utilizing a pretend title and regardless of his prison historical past.

The lawsuit, which additionally names OfferUp as a defendant, argues that whereas Letgo advertises working with regulation enforcement companies to maintain its tens of thousands and thousands of customers protected, the one requirement to turn out to be a “verified vendor” is a working e mail deal with.

“The Letgo App offers an phantasm that these alleged ‘verified’ accounts can and needs to be trusted above their on-line ‘market’ competitors,” in keeping with the lawsuit. “Nonetheless, it has turn out to be more and more clear that Letgo falsely advertises itself as a protected on-line market for verified sellers with out having any form of authentic verification course of.”

A spokesman for OfferUp, based mostly in Bellevue, Washington, mentioned Thursday he was wanting into the lawsuit however didn’t instantly remark.

The Letgo app was integrated into the same OfferUp app shortly after the Colorado capturing however nonetheless exists independently outdoors the U.S.

In August 2020, Joseph Roland was in search of a car for his teenage daughter and located a Toyota RAV4 marketed by a “verified vendor” on Letgo named James Worthy, who was actually an 18-year-old named Kyree Brown. Roland agreed to satisfy Brown in a parking zone close to a mall within the Denver suburb of Aurora.

“What was speculated to be a short and protected transaction by Letgo — became a tragic nightmare,” in keeping with the lawsuit.

When Roland and his spouse, Jossline, arrived, Brown instructed them he had unintentionally introduced the flawed car title and requested the couple to satisfy him elsewhere, in keeping with the lawsuit.

They agreed and adopted the person to the deal with, “unsuspecting of any hazard, since James Worthy was a Letgo ‘verified vendor,’” the lawsuit mentioned.

Brown is accused of pulling a handgun and capturing the couple to dying after Joseph Roland tried to wrestle the weapon away. Investigators say the teenager then fled with the $3,000 in money the Rolands had introduced with them to pay for the SUV, which had been reported stolen just a few days earlier than the Aug. 14, 2020, encounter.

Brown was arrested about two weeks after the capturing and is awaiting trial on two counts of first-degree homicide.

“It’s outrageous conduct that Letgo led clients to consider the App had any authentic verification course of when, any consumer, (not to mention Mr. Brown – who had a prison file), may use fictitious names and promote stolen autos as ‘verified’ by merely offering an e-mail deal with,” the lawsuit says.

It additionally contends that had Letgo applied stricter verification insurance policies, it could not have taken police two weeks to trace down the suspect.

Along with negligence, the lawsuit accuses Letgo and OfferUp of fraud, misrepresentation and misleading and unfair commerce practices. It’s searching for damages to be decided by a jury.

Jossline Roland used to work for the Legislation Workplaces of Dianne Sawaya in Denver. The workplace filed the lawsuit together with one other agency based mostly in Los Angeles.