A D.C. chiropractor who took part in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol was sentenced Tuesday to two months in jail for a misdemeanor offense. But he still faces a wrongful-death lawsuit accusing him of assaulting a police officer who later died by suicide.
The D.C. officer, Jeffrey Smith, 35, suffered a brain injury when he was struck with his own baton, according to the lawsuit. Smith, who killed himself nine days after riot, was among four police officers who died by suicide in the weeks and months after battling the mob at the Capitol, authorities said. Another officer involved in the mayhem died from stroke a day later.
The chiropractor, David Walls-Kaufman, now 66, who lived and worked on Capitol Hill, was not criminally charged with assaulting Smith because prosecutors said they lacked sufficient evidence to prove that allegation beyond a reasonable doubt. But the officer’s widow, Erin Smith, has filed a civil case against Walls-Kaufman.
The burden of proof in a lawsuit is lower than the standard in a criminal case.
“Because of the choices he made on January 6th, I lost my husband,” Smith said of Walls-Kaufman at his sentencing in U.S. District Court in D.C. Addressing the court in a halting voice, she said, “My life will never be the same.”
Even though Judge Jia M. Cobb said she could not factor Smith’s death into her sentencing decision because Walls-Kaufman pleaded guilty only to illegally protesting in a Capitol building, she allowed Smith and the officer’s father to make victim-impact statements at Tuesday’s proceeding.
The father, Richard Smith, said he “respectfully” disagreed with the decision by the U.S. attorney’s office in D.C. to charge Walls-Kauffman only with several misdemeanors — all but one of which were dismissed in return for his guilty plea.
“At a minimum, David Walls-Kaufman should be charged with assaulting a police officer,” Richard Smith told the judge, adding, “Jeff’s passing ripped the heart out of our family. We will never be whole again.”
Walls-Kaufman admitted to joining supporters of President Donald Trump in the attack on the Capitol while Congress was meeting to confirm Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election. But he said he was there to gather material for a scholarly article he planned to write on the nature of human conflict.
“I’m extremely sorry about what happened that day and my role in it,” he said in court. As for the allegation that he assaulted Smith, he said, “I’m one of the last persons on Earth that would do such a thing.” Since his arrest, he said: “I’ve been [described] as a cop killer. But there is no evidence.”
In his sentencing memo, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Kiok described Walls-Kaufman’s movements in the Capitol that day.
“After being sprayed with a chemical irritant, Walls-Kaufman washed out his eyes, entered the [Capitol] Rotunda, and made his way to the offices of the Speaker of the House, where he assisted in opening a door to a conference room, then entered the room,” Kiok wrote.
“He later joined a mob that walked through the halls surrounding the House chamber, eventually coming to the door to the Speaker’s Lobby,” in an area where members of Congress and others had taken shelter. “While present with this mob, a rioter attempted to jump through a glass window and was shot by a United States Capitol police officer,” Kiok wrote, referring to rioter Ashli Babbitt, who died of her wound.
The offense to which Walls-Kaufman pleaded guilty carries a maximum jail sentence of six months. Cobb granted Kiok’s request for a two-month term. Walls-Kaufman asked to be placed on probation and spared jail time.
According to the lawsuit, video evidence shows Walls-Kaufman hitting Jeffrey Smith with the officer’s baton while Smith’s face was exposed and vulnerable. The complaint includes photos from Smith’s body camera, which the lawsuit says shows the officer being struck with his own club.
Smith’s family said he suffered a traumatic brain injury, leading him to take his own life. According to the court record for the lawsuit, he lost consciousness during the riot and suffered severe pain in its wake. Smith had no prior mental health issues, but after the attack, he could not sleep or keep his attention focused, according to Erin Smith and her attorney.
The D.C. Police and Firefighters Retirement and Relief Board granted Erin Smith a full pension, ruling that her husband’s injury on Jan. 6 was the “sole and direct cause of his death.” The ruling came after months of advocacy by Erin Smith and members of Congress.
“Not a day goes by that I don’t think about Jeffrey and what our lives could have been,” she told Cobb in a letter. “No matter what sentence you decide upon, please remember that I now live a sentence of life without Jeffrey.”
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