{"id":43906,"date":"2025-06-24T03:48:49","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T08:48:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=43906"},"modified":"2025-06-24T03:51:43","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T08:51:43","slug":"jury-orders-man-to-pay-500k-for-assaulting-police-officer-who-killed-himself-after-capitol-riot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=43906","title":{"rendered":"Jury orders man to pay $500K for assaulting police officer who killed himself after Capitol riot"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 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 U.S. Capitol<\/a> from a mob of rioters, including a man who scuffled with the officer during the attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The eight-member jury ordered that man, 69-year-old chiropractor David Walls-Kaufman<\/a>, to pay $380,000 in punitive damages and $60,000 in compensatory damages to Erin Smith for assaulting her husband, Metropolitan Police Officer Jeffrey Smith, inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. They awarded an additional $60,000 to compensate Jeffrey Smith\u2019s estate for his pain and suffering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The judge presiding over the civil trial<\/a> dismissed Erin Smith\u2019s wrongful-death claim against Walls-Kaufman before jurors began deliberating last week. U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes said no reasonable juror could conclude that Walls-Kaufman\u2019s actions were capable of causing a traumatic brain injury leading to Smith\u2019s death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Friday, the jury sided with Erin Smith and held Walls-Kaufman liable for assaulting her 35-year-old husband \u2014 an encounter captured on the officer\u2019s body camera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cErin is grateful to receive some measure of justice,\u201d said David P. Weber, one of her attorneys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walls-Kaufman said the outcome of the trial is \u201cabsolutely ridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo crime happened. I never struck the officer. I never intended to strike the officer,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m just stunned.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 \u201cfinality.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou guys settle, you can move on with your lives,\u201d the judge said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walls-Kaufman\u2019s attorney, Hughie Hunt, described the jury\u2019s award as \u201cshocking.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re talking about a three-second event,\u201d he told the judge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not shocking, Mr. Hunt. A lot of things can happen in three seconds,\u201d Reyes replied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeffrey Smith was driving to work for the first time after the Capitol riot when he shot and killed himself with his service weapon. His family said he had no history of mental health problems before the Jan. 6 riot. 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walls-Kaufman, who lived a few blocks from the Capitol, denied assaulting Smith. He says any injuries that the officer suffered on Jan. 6 occurred later in the day, when another rioter threw a pole that struck Smith around his head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The police department medically evaluated Smith and cleared him to return to full duty before he killed himself. In 2022, the District of Columbia Police and Firefighters\u2019 Retirement and Relief Board determined that Smith was injured in the line of duty and the injury was the \u201csole and direct cause of his death,\u201d according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walls-Kaufman served a 60-day prison sentence after pleading guilty to a Capitol riot-related misdemeanor in January 2023, but he was pardoned in January. On his first day back in the White House, President Donald Trump pardoned, commuted prison sentences or ordered the dismissal of cases for all of the nearly 1,600 people<\/a> charged in the attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than 100 law-enforcement officers were injured during the riot. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick<\/a> collapsed and died a day after engaging with the rioters. A medical examiner<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nbcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 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 U.S. Capitol from a mob of rioters, including a man who scuffled with the officer during the attack. The eight-member jury ordered that man, 69-year-old chiropractor David Walls-Kaufman, to pay […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":43907,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[33719,8745,1840,33718,3093],"class_list":["post-43906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-500-2","tag-8745","tag-assault","tag-capitol-riot","tag-jury"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43906"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43906\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43908,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43906\/revisions\/43908"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}