Written by Michael Kunzelman
Washington (AP) The widow of a police officer appeared in court this week to demonstrate that her husband was beaten by a guy during a mob attack on the US Capitol, and that the man was ultimately to blame for the officer’s suicide nine days later. The jury’s decision on Friday only gave Erin Smith a partial win in her lawsuit regarding her husband’s passing.
David Walls-Kaufman, a 69-year-old chiropractor, was found guilty by the eight-member jury of assaulting Metropolitan Police Officer Jeffrey Smith on January 6, 2021, within the Capitol. Before determining whether to grant Erin Smith any financial compensation for her husband’s assault, they will hear additional trial testimony.
However, before jurors could start deliberating, the judge overseeing the civil trial dismissed Erin Smith’s wrongful-death claim against Walls-Kaufman. No reasonable juror could have concluded that Walls-Kaufman’s acts could have caused Smith’s death through traumatic brain injury, according to U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes.
Reyes separated the trial into two phases: a damages phase and a merits phase for Smith’s claims. On Monday, jurors are anticipated to hear closing arguments from the attorneys for the damages phase.
The judge encouraged the parties to talk about a potential settlement over the weekend in the interim. According to Reyes, it would make perfect sense for both parties to move on from this and save the time and money required for an appeal.
Erin Smith asserted that during their altercation within the Capitol, Walls-Kaufman caused her husband to sustain a concussion. After the Capitol riot, Jeffrey Smith used his service firearm to shoot and kill himself while he was driving to work for the first time.
According to his widow, Walls-Kaufman used his own police baton to hit her husband, 35, in the head within the Capitol, leading him to suffer physical and psychological anguish that ultimately caused him to commit suicide. Before the Jan. 6 brawl, Smith had no history of mental health issues, but his wife and parents claim that after he suffered a concussion, his mood and conduct altered.
Living close to the Capitol, Walls-Kaufman denies assaulting Smith. He claims that any injuries the officer sustained on January 6th happened later that day when Smith was hit around the head by a stick thrown by another rioter.
In January 2023, Walls-Kaufman pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor related to the Capitol riot and was sentenced to 60 days in prison; however, he was pardoned in January. President Donald Trump pardoned, shortened prison sentences, or ordered the dismissal of cases for all 1,600 persons who were prosecuted in the attack on his first day back in the White House.
Smith’s case against Walls-Kaufman remained intact despite Trump’s broad act of mercy.
The first witness in the trial, Erin Smith, remembered the first time she kissed her husband after the riot on January 15, 2021, as he left for work and packed a lunch for him.
She testified that I told him I loved him and promised to see him when he got home.
Police officials knocked on her house within hours and told her that her spouse had died. When she found out that he had shot himself in his own vehicle with his service firearm, she was shocked.
She remembers that the words were the most horrific she had ever heard. You simply don’t know how to proceed.
Hughie Hunt, Walls-Kaufman’s lawyer, advised jurors to keep their emotions in check and focus on the case’s facts.
Hunt stated during the trial’s opening statements, “This is tragic, but that doesn’t place anything at the foot of my client.”
Smith’s altercation with Walls-Kaufman was captured on tape by his body camera. Walls-Kaufman testified that while police attempted to move the crowd out of the Capitol, he was overtaken by sensory overload and general bewilderment.
“I couldn’t tell from which direction or who was pushing whom,” he claimed.
Before Smith committed suicide, the police department conducted a medical evaluation and gave him the all-clear to resume full duty. According to Hunt, there is no proof that his client hit Smith on purpose.
Hunt stated in a court filing in the lawsuit that the claim is based solely on confusing camera material that is open to interpretation and does not include supporting eyewitness statements.
During the riot, almost 100 law enforcement personnel suffered injuries. One day after confronting the rioters, Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick fell and passed away. Later, a medical examiner concluded that he had a stroke and passed away naturally. Following the attack, Howard Liebengood, a Capitol police officer who reacted to the melee, too took his own life.
According to the lawsuit, the District of Columbia Police and Firefighters Retirement and Relief Board found in 2022 that Smith’s death was caused solely and directly by an accident he sustained while performing his duties.
