Family sues John Roberts for $25 million
Virginia Roberts’ estate seeks wrongful death damages
This photograph of Virginia Roberts was taken in summer 2007.
Contributed photo
The family of a slain Gresham woman has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against her husband, John L. Roberts, who was charged with her murder earlier this month.
Marta Guembes, honorary vice consul for Guatemala in Portland, filed the suit as a representative of Virginia Roberts’ estate in Multnomah County Circuit Court on Wednesday, Feb. 27.
Roberts was indicted Feb. 8 in the Feb. 2 murder of his wife, Virginia Roberts, who died of a gunshot wound to the head. The suit claims that John Roberts shot and killed Virginia Roberts, and he did so intentionally, recklessly or carelessly. It seeks about $25.25 million in damages, including loss of income, funeral expenses, pain, suffering, loss of parent-child relationships and wrongful death.
Roberts has admitted to killing his wife, because, he has said, she suffered from ALS, a terminal illness also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, and wanted to die.
“We don’t know that there are any assets, but we are going to try and help them,” said Derek Ashton of the firm Cosgrave Vergeer Kester LLP in Portland. He is representing Guembes and the family in the civil suit.
“The primary reason civil cases don’t get filed until the criminal case is over is because there are fact questions,” Ashton said. “I think (Roberts) has pretty well established what he did.”
According to district attorney’s documents, “the proof is evident and the presumption strong that the defendant is guilty of murder.” Documents contend there is extensive evidence that Virginia had neither ALS nor a terminal illness, nor expressed a desire to die.
The suit names Kenneth Wilton Cruz Quiroz, 25, and Marsha Tatiana Cruz Quiroz, 19, as her children from a previous marriage; Amanda Romero de Quiroz, 74, as her mother; and Umberto Quiroz, 96, as her father.
The body of Virginia Roberts was flown Friday to Guatemala, where her family resides, for a funeral today.
The Oregon victim assistance program provided funds to transport the body, Guembes said.
“This has been a very painful and a very long process for the family,” said Guembes. “It’s been so shocking and so painful of how she got (killed).”
A bail hearing date is set for March 19 in the criminal case against Roberts.