Utah
Rape survivor shares horror over Gabby Petito Utah cop’s body-cam video
A RAPE survivor – who has slammed Gabby Petito Utah police officer Eric Pratt for a way he dealt with her personal case – says she sobbed when she noticed how he handled Gabby’s home dispute simply days earlier than she was murdered.
Jerika Peterson, 21, spoke to The U.S. Solar this week about how disgusted she was with the best way Officer Pratt, now a defendant in a wrongful demise swimsuit, dealt together with her criticism.
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She was attacked at 15 by a male good friend in Salina, the place Pratt used to work, again in September 2016, and regardless of promising to get justice, her attacker was by no means arrested.
Jerika suffered a brutal assault as she was sodomized by the drunken 18-year-old and left with accidents after attempting to combat him off.
Regardless of textual content messages exhibiting she fled the scene, adopted by an apology for his conduct, Jerika’s rapist was solely ever interviewed – and commenced turning up at occasions she attended.
She stated Pratt was by no means even in a position to get a no-contact order as she dealt together with her trauma, and her ordeal was again on the forefront of her thoughts when Pratt made the information in 2021.
In line with his LinkedIn account, Pratt labored for Salina PD, which is 158 miles from Moab, from January 2014 to September 2017.
He left Salina following reviews he had an affair with a girl who has since accused him of threatening to kill her with a crowbar, and Jerika feels he shouldn’t be an officer.
She says she was in tears when she noticed the body-cam footage of a distraught Gabby, 22, being pulled over in Moab with fiance Brian Laundrie, 23.
Pratt finally named her the “major aggressor” after she admitted to slapping her associate, and an impartial evaluation discovered errors had been made by the officers concerned.
Speaking about her ordeal after reporting her rape, Jerika informed The U.S. Solar: “Virtually precisely 5 years to the day [the attack happened], my rapist shot himself.
“I do not know why he killed himself, however I am guessing his guilt was so dangerous he could not stay with it, it has been a very exhausting state of affairs for me. I do not know tips on how to really feel about it.
NERVOUS BREAKDOWN
“Between that after which seeing the entire stuff with Gabby, I truly ended up going to the psychological hospital, getting in touch with a psychiatrist, and getting some assist. I had a nervous breakdown.
“I used to be fired from my job the day I discovered about my attacker. My mother took me into the behavioral well being unit. I used to be solely there for a day however obtained arrange.
“It simply introduced up quite a lot of previous trauma. Once I noticed the bodycam footage, I simply broke down in tears as a result of I may really feel her ache.
“Then to seek out out what had occurred to her, and that Pratt had let somebody slip by the cracks once more. It was simply sickening.
“I felt like throughout my case, he was on my facet, however then wanting again on it now, it is like nothing was ever completed. And after he left the division, nothing was ever completed about it.”
Jerika says has suffered from night time terrors and PTSD from the assault and his demise which she is working by with the assistance of a psychiatrist.
“I wakened fully terrified at some point that my abuser hadn’t killed himself and was residing within the residence subsequent door,” she admitted.”
Jerika, who’s now more healthy and happier, claimed Pratt was on her case for greater than a yr earlier than he left the job, and on reflection, she feels her case was swept underneath the rug.
She beforehand revealed her mom took her to the hospital after her assault, as she had cuts and bruises and a sprained jaw, explaining: “I used to be on mashed potatoes and smoothies. It was from me yelling and clenching my jaw.”
The U.S. Solar reached out to Moab Police Division and Salina Police Division, however each declined to touch upon her case.
BOMBSHELL LAWSUIT
Jerika says she hopes Petito’s household will get some justice after Brian shot himself and they’re now going by the courts with a number of lawsuits, together with the $50million wrongful demise swimsuit in opposition to Moab PD.
Requested why she selected to talk out in opposition to Pratt now amid the lawsuit, she stated: “I wanted to do that, for Gabby and myself. It means a lot to me to really feel like I’ve folks on my facet. It has been a protracted journey.
“I might by no means have been in a position to come ahead with this if it wasn’t for Gabby, she has given me the energy I did not know I had. Getting justice for Gabby and her household is justice for all victims in my eyes.”
Jerika’s feedback come because the Petito household legal professional, Brian Stewart, filed an amended criticism this week, claiming Pratt “knew Brian Laundrie was a psychological and emotional menace to her” but solely determined to separate them for the night time.
The lawsuit, first filed by Legal professional Brian Stewart seven months in the past, accuses the division of a collection of negligent failures throughout an encounter with Gabby and her soon-to-be assassin boyfriend Brian on August 12, 2021.
On that day, the division had been alerted to a potential home dispute between the couple close to a grocery store with one witness calling 911 saying a person was seen slapping his girlfriend.
The brand new submitting reads: “Officer Pratt has since defined that, on the time of the visitors cease, he believed that Brian was emotionally and mentally abusing Gabby, that Gabby didn’t in reality assault Brian, and that Brian had used bodily power on Gabby by grabbing her face which left a lower on her face.
“Defendants’ negligence and Officer Pratt’s willful misconduct disadvantaged Gabby of her security and finally her life.”
Pratt, Moab PD, and different defendants are but to formally reply to the lawsuit.
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