‘Disturbing pattern emerges’ as Gabby Petito Utah cop slammed by rape survivor who claims he ‘swept case under the rug’
A RAPE survivor has slammed one of the Utah cops being sued by the Petito family, claiming that he swept her own case "under the rug" and left her vulnerable to harassment by her attacker.
Jerika Peterson, 21, bravely spoke to The U.S. Sun for an exclusive interview after being left rattled when Moab Detective Eric Pratt made headlines.
Pratt, one of the officers involved in the bungled traffic stop with Gabby Petito and fiancé Brian Laundrie, is now a defendant in a $50million wrongful death suit brought by Gabby's parents, Nichole Schmidt and Joseph Petito.
They have accused the police department of failing to protect their daughter and take action before she was killed by Brian during a cross-country trip in 2021.
Police concluded that Gabby was the primary aggressor after she admitted to slapping her partner during a domestic dispute, and only decided to separate them for the night.
Just weeks later, Brian strangled her to death and fled, and a shocking image has since been released from Gabby's cell phone showing injuries to her face before she was pulled over in Moab after a witness called 911.
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Jerika, who claims Pratt handled her own case back in 2016 when he worked for Salina Police Department in Utah, has recalled her terrifying ordeal at the hands of an 18-year-old school friend.
Jerika suffered a brutal attack and was sodomized at age 15.
According to his LinkedIn account, Pratt worked for Salina PD, which is 158 miles from Moab, from January 2014 to September 2017.
Jerika claims she begged Pratt, 40, and other officers to have her attacker arrested after she was left with injuries but he was only ever interviewed.
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She admits that she initially gave police inconsistent testimony as she didn't want to reveal her attacker, but she soon came clean - and he began showing up at events she attended.
"I thought that he [Pratt] was on my side and was helping me, and he wasn't," she claimed.
"Not a single thing was done. He couldn't even get me a no-contact [order].
"I feel like he was just telling me stuff and then not doing anything," she said, adding that she had known Pratt through her family connections for years and he "watched her grow up."
Asked if she thinks he should still be a working officer, she replied: "I think he's had enough chances to get his sh*t straight ... excuse my language.
"It looks like he just keeps messing up and moving on, thinking he can keep shoving stuff under the rug."
Recalling the night of Sunday, September 4 during Labor Day weekend, Jerika said she attended a party where she hung out with her attacker and a group of friends.
Jerika says she had moved to nearby Cedar City but went back to see her grandparents, who she briefly lived with in Redmond, Sevier County.
"I went to a party with some of my friends, and he was there," she told The U.S. Sun.
"He had been drinking all day long. I was not old enough to drive yet, I was 15.
"I had driven back to his house and I remember we were watching a movie and stuff and we did make out, that was consensual. And then he was like, let's go in the [bed]room.
TERRIFYING ORDEAL
"At first everything was consensual. And then he started pushing me too far. And he sodomized me."
Jerika says she "wrestled him" and asked what he was doing and tried to stop the teen but he continued, and she remembers sobbing during the terrifying attack.
She recalled: "At one point, I was just crying and I was just laying there and he got mad and got off me and went and got in the shower.
"I didn't even turn the light on. I remember just trying to grab everything I could see and I actually ran out the door and was calling friends.
"I didn't realize what was going on. I thought I was gonna be in trouble so I just called a bunch of my friends trying to get them to answer to come and get me.
"It was like two in the morning. I was running down the streets of Redmond. He had started calling me."
Jerika went on: "My friend came and got me and I went and stayed the night at the house with them, they took me back to my grandparents in the morning.
"I got home and I had been texting my cousin and she told my mom, so I had already gone in and showered. I was in my room by the time my mom found out and took me to the hospital.
He was on it for a year, and nothing happened."
Rape survivor Jerika on officer Eric Pratt
"I was completely traumatized walking in and you could tell something was wrong. I had visible wounds, so they knew something happened."
Jerika said she had cuts and bruises and had also sprained her jaw, explaining: "I was on mashed potatoes and smoothies. It was from me yelling and clenching my jaw."
A text message sent by her rapist, which appears in the police report seen by The U.S. Sun, reads: "Ok well I'm f**kin done with ur dumb a** u can't just leave with out telling me I've been looking for u since i got out of the f**king shower so thanks for letting me waste my gas!"
Her attacker followed up the next morning at 11.32am by telling her: "Hey sorry about that text I was really f***ed up!" along with a laughing emoji.
Jerika says she never responded and never spoke to the boy again, instead focusing on getting help from police.
Her rape case was initially dealt with by Cedar Police Department but officers from Salina PD, including Eric Pratt, then took over.
At first, she claimed a stranger had assaulted her in his car before revealing that her rapist was a "friend" and producing the text messages showing they were together on the night in question.
"My mom never told me this until a couple of months ago, but she said that the first time she met with Pratt about my case, he'd walked up to her and told her, 'Well, this happened, but did you know that your daughter has been sexually active before? And it was with this person [a different boy].'
"My mom was like.. 'Actually I did know that. My daughter and I are very open about things.'
"In such a small town, unfortunately, it's normal."
CASE 'DROPPED'
She said that Pratt insisted he believed her and would get her justice, but the situation dragged on for a year, with Jerika saying she never got a reason as to why there was never any progress.
"I would be places and he would deliberately show up, and he started sleeping with some of my friends to turn people against me and hurt me," she said of her attacker.
"Pratt promised me a no-contact order so that he couldn't show up at places I was and I wouldn’t have to see him anymore. That never happened.
"He told my mom: 'Don't push statutory rape charges because we can go for a felony charge of sodomy.'
"Pratt was someone I trusted and I thought we were moving forward on my case. He was on it for a year, and nothing happened."
Pratt then left Salina and took on a job at Moab PD before the Gabby Petito traffic stop, and Jerika says her case was "basically dropped" as nobody would respond to her.
The U.S. Sun has reached out to Pratt through Moab PD, who declined to comment.
A spokesperson for Salina PD said: "Salina City Police Department declines to comment at this time."
Pratt's LinkedIn account appears to suggest he may be working as a "law enforcement officer" for another department having ceased employment with Moab PD in January this year.
When asked about his employment, a spokesperson refused to confirm or deny whether he has moved on, and Moab PD is yet to formally respond to the Petito case.
It's not the first time Pratt has been accused of "sweeping cases under the rug," as an alleged former mistress, who claimed he threatened to kill her with a crowbar, previously spoke out about their relationship.
The woman, who is also featured in the Petito lawsuit against Moab PD, alleges it was his regular practice to not follow through on investigations, stating: "It's too much paperwork," or "There's no way I'm doing all that paperwork."
Pratt has never responded to any accusations about him since the lawsuit was filed.
Jerika told The U.S. Sun about her case: "He was like, 'I believe you 100 percent. I'm so sorry for what happened to you. We're gonna get this guy.'
"He just like played me and my family," she further claimed.
"Almost exactly five years to the day, [my rapist] shot himself.
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"I don't know why he killed himself, but I'm guessing his guilt was so bad, he couldn't live with it.
"It's been a really hard situation for me. I don't know how to feel about it. But at the same time, if Pratt had done something, maybe this kid could have got some help."
