David Walls-Kaufman (main image), a Capitol Hill chiropractor who attacked a police officer during the January 6 riots in 2021, is being ordered to pay a total amount of about $500,000 to Metropolitan Police Officer Jeffrey Smith’s family and estate for damages. Smith committed suicide nine days after the incident while driving on his first day back to work since the riots.
According to NBC News, the jury ordered Walls-Kaufman “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’s estate for his pain and suffering.”
Walls-Kaufman was arrested in 2022 and charged with “parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building,” to which he pleaded guilty and spent 60 days in jail. He also pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges in January 2023. He was eventually pardoned by President Trump in 2025. This pardon doesn’t dismiss his faultiness for the attack on Smith, according to Smith’s wife, who sued Walls-Kaufman for the wrongful death of her husband.
US District Judge Ana Reyes did not agree with the jury’s decision, dismissing the claim last week before deliberation. Walls-Kaufman maintained his innocence after the ruling: “No crime happened. I never struck the officer. I never intended to strike the officer. I’m just stunned.” He claims that another rioter threw a pole at Smith, which allegedly caused his death.
Hughie Hunt, Walls-Kaufman’s attorney, said in defense of his client, “We’re talking about a three-second event.”
“It’s not shocking, Mr. Hunt. A lot of things can happen in three seconds,” Judge Reyes responded.
Hunt maintained, “The [jury’s] claim rests entirely on ambiguous video footage subject to interpretation and lacks corroborating eyewitness testimony.”
