A federal jury on Monday awarded $500,000 to the widow and estate of a police officer who killed himself nine days after he helped defend the US Capitol from the mob that attacked on January 6, 2021, including a man who scuffled with the officer during the uprising.
The eight-member jury ordered that the man, 69-year-old chiropractor David Walls-Kaufman, to pay $380,000 in punitive damages and $60,000 in compensatory damages to Erin Smith for assaulting her husband, Washington DC metropolitan police officer Jeffrey Smith, inside the Capitol. They awarded an additional $60,000 to compensate Jeffrey Smith’s estate for his pain and suffering.
The judge presiding over the civil trial dismissed Erin Smith’s wrongful-death claim against Walls-Kaufman before jurors began deliberating last week. Federal judge Ana Reyes said no reasonable juror could conclude that Walls-Kaufman’s actions were capable of causing a traumatic brain injury leading to Smith’s death.
Walls-Kaufman, who lived a few blocks from the Capitol, denied assaulting Smith. He says any injuries that the officer suffered on the day of the Capitol attack occurred when another attacker threw a pole that struck Smith around his head.
On Friday, the jury sided with Erin Smith and held Walls-Kaufman liable for assaulting her 35-year-old husband – an encounter captured on the officer’s body camera.
“Erin is grateful to receive some measure of justice,” said one of her attorneys, David P Weber.
Walls-Kaufman said the outcome of the trial is “absolutely ridiculous”.
“No crime happened. I never struck the officer. I never intended to strike the officer,” he said. “I’m just stunned.”
After the jury left the courtroom, Reyes encouraged the parties to confer and discuss a possible settlement to avoid the time and expense of an appeal – and for the sake of “finality”.
“You guys settle,” the judge said, “you can move on with your lives.”
Walls-Kaufman’s attorney, Hughie Hunt, described the jury’s award as “shocking”.
“We’re talking about a three-second event,” he told the judge.
“It’s not shocking, Mr Hunt,” Reyes replied. “A lot of things can happen in three seconds.”
Jeffrey Smith was driving to work for the first time after the Capitol attack when he shot and killed himself with his service weapon. His family said he had no history of mental health problems before the January 6 attack.
Erin Smith claims Walls-Kaufman struck her husband in the head with his own police baton, giving him a concussion and causing psychological and physical trauma that led to his suicide.
The police department medically evaluated Smith and cleared him to return to full duty before he killed himself. In 2022, the DC police and firefighters’ retirement and relief board determined that Smith was injured in the line of duty and the injury was the “sole and direct cause of his death”, according to the lawsuit.
Walls-Kaufman served a 60-day prison sentence after pleading guilty to a Capitol riot-related misdemeanor in January 2023. But Donald Trump pardoned him in January.
On the first day of his second presidency, which began in January, Trump pardoned, commuted prison sentences or ordered the dismissal of cases for all of the nearly 1,600 people charged in the Capitol attack.
More than 100 law-enforcement officers were injured during the riot. Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick collapsed and died a day after engaging with the rioters. A medical examiner later determined he suffered a stroke and died of natural causes.
Howard Liebengood, a Capitol police officer who responded to the riot, also died by suicide after the attack.
Erin Smith has applied for the National Law Enforcement Memorial to add her husband’s name as a line-of-duty death. Weber said they’re hoping for a decision soon.
