Judge Jeanine Slams Utah Police For Failing to Protect Gabby Petito, Not Arresting Brian Laundrie: ‘There Was Probable Cause’

Judge Jeanine Pirro slammed the Moab, Utah police officers whose interactions with Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie during a traffic stop were captured by their body cameras, citing Utah law to say that there was probable cause to arrest Laundrie.

Shortly after that traffic stop, Petito went missing and was later found dead in a national park in Wyoming. Petito’s death has been ruled a homicide, but an exact cause of death has not yet been released.

Pirro criticized the argument that domestic violence laws were created for local residents, not for people traveling through town, like Petito and Laundrie were doing as they documented their trip in their van on social media.

“That was wrong,” stated Pirro. “Domestic violence laws were made to protect all domestic violence victims, wherever that crime occurs. Your address is irrelevant.”

According to the Utah code, she continued, “the primary duty of law enforcement officers in a domestic violence call is to protect the victim and enforce the law.”

“If the peace officer has probable cause to believe there will be continued violence against the alleged victim, the officer shall arrest and take the perpetrator into custody,” Pirro quoted the statute, and explained, “shall means must.”

Police officers were trained to look for potential domestic violence victims who were crying, claimed responsibility, or were afraid to speak up, said Pirro  — characteristics which could be said to apply to Petito in that body cam video clip.

The witnesses who called 911 said that they saw Laundrie hitting Petito “repeatedly,” said Pirro. “And the officers indicated he had her phone, he was preventing her from getting into the van.”

“An arrest should have been considered and there was probable cause to make it,” Pirro concluded.

Watch the video above, via Fox News.