(Washington) An American federal jury granted US $ 500,000 on Monday at the widow and the succession of a police officer who killed himself nine days after helping to defend the Capitol of the United States against a crowd of rioters, including a man who had fought with him during the attack.
The jury, composed of eight members, ordered this man, the chiropractor David Walls-Kaufman, aged 69, to pay US $ 380,000 of punitive damages and US $ 60,000 of compensatory damages to Erin Smith for having assaulted her husband, the metropolitan police officer Jeffrey Smith, 2021. He also granted additional $ 60,000 for the succession of agent Jeffrey Smith.
The judge presiding over the civil trial rejected the plans for manslaughter filed by Erin Smith against Walls-Kaufman before the jury’s deliberations last week. Federal judge Ana Reyes said that no reasonable juror could conclude that the acts of Walls-Kaufman were likely to cause cranial trauma that led to Smith’s death.
Walls-Kaufman, who lived in a few pâtés from Capitol, denied having assaulted Smith. He claims that the injuries suffered by the agent on January 6 occurred later in the day, when another rioter launched a pole who struck him in the head.
Friday, the jury agreed to Erin Smith and tried Walls-Kaufman responsible for the assault of her 35-year-old husband, a scene filmed by the agent’s body camera.
“Erin is grateful to have obtained justice,” said David P. Weber, one of his lawyers.
“Totally ridiculous”
Walls-Kaufman said that the outcome of the trial was “totally ridiculous”.
“No crime has been committed. I never hit the agent. I had never intended to hit him, he said. I’m just stunned. After the jury’s departure, Judge Reyes encouraged the parties to consult and discuss a possible amicable settlement in order to avoid the deadlines and costs of a call and to close the file.
“You can settle your disputes, you can continue your life,” said the judge.
Walls-Kaufman’s lawyer Hughie Hunt described the jury’s award as “shocking”.
“We are talking about a three-second event,” he said.
“It’s not shocking, Me Hunt. Many things can happen in three seconds, ”replied J. Reyes.
Jeffrey Smith went to work by car for the first time since the riot of the Capitol when he committed suicide with his service weapon. His family said he had no history of mental disorders before the January 6 riot. Erin Smith claims that Walls-Kaufman hit her husband at the head with his own police baton, causing him a concussion and a psychological and physical trauma that led to his suicide.
The police service examined Smith and authorized him to fully resume his functions before he ended his life. In 2022, the police and rescue commission of police and firefighters from the Columbia district determined that Smith had been injured in the exercise of his functions and that this injury was the “unique and direct cause of his death,” said complaint.
Walls-Kaufman served a 60-day prison sentence after pleading guilty of an offense linked to the riots of the Capitol in January 2023, but it was pardoned in January. Upon his return to the White House, President Donald Trump pardoned, commissioned prison sentences or ordered the classification without follow-up of some 1600 people accused for the attack.
More than 100 police officers were injured during the riot. Capitole police officer Brian Sicknick collapsed and died one day after having faced the rioters. A medical examiner then found that he had been the victim of a stroke and that he died of natural causes. Howard Liebengood, a police officer from the Capitol intervened during the riot, also committed suicide after the attack.
Erin Smith’s quest is not over. She made a request to the National Memorial of the police so that the name of her husband was added to the list of people who died in the exercise of their functions. Me Weber said he hoped for an upcoming decision.
