A federal jury ordered a Capitol rioter to pay $500,000 in damages to the widow and estate of a police officer he reportedly assaulted, and who later died by suicide.
David Walls-Kaufman, a 69-year-old chiropractor, was ordered to pay $380,000 in punitive damages and $60,000 in compensatory damages to Erin Smith, the widow of Washington, D.C. police officer Jeffrey Smith, who killed himself nine days after the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riots. The jury also ordered Walls-Kaufman to pay $60,000 to Smith’s estate for his pain and suffering.
The damages, first reported by The Associated Press, were laid out in a court filing and confirmed to the Daily Beast by Erin’s attorney, David P. Weber.
Last week, the eight-member jury held Walls-Kaufman liable for assaulting Smith, but the presiding judge dismissed Erin’s wrongful death claim against the defendant.
“The verdict has provided widow Erin Smith a measure of justice that she has long sought for her husband,” Weber said. “We are considering our appeal options on the portion of the case that was not allowed to go to the jury.”
Walls-Kaufman was among the first group of rioters who charged into the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election win, according to a 2023 sentencing document. He was jailed for two months after pleading guilty in 2023 to a misdemeanor, but President Donald Trump pardoned him in January.
Smith’s body camera captured the moment he scuffled with Walls-Kaufman. Erin claimed that Walls-Kaufman struck her 35-year-old husband in the head using a police baton, inflicting psychological and physical trauma. Walls-Kaufman denied the assault, arguing that Smith likely sustained those injuries when a different rioter threw a pole that hit his head later in the day.
Nine days after the riot, police knocked on Erin’s door to inform her that her husband had killed himself.
“It was the most traumatic words I’ve ever heard. You just don’t know what to do,” she said in her testimony. “I told him I loved him, said I would see him when he got home.”
Smith’s widow and parents said his mood and behavior changed after sustaining a concussion. Walls-Kaufman’s attorney, Hughie Hunt, wrote in a court filing that the “ambiguous video footage” of his scuffle with Smith was “subject to interpretation and lacks corroborating eyewitness testimony.”
Erin has asked the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial to add Smith’s name as a line-of-duty death. Weber urged the organization to approve their application soon.
“Because of the choices he made on January 6th, I lost my husband,” Smith said of Walls-Kaufman at his sentencing. “My life will never be the same.”
If you or a loved one are struggling with suicidal thoughts, please reach out to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741.
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