Ketchikan police chief on paid leave after indictment on assault charge

Ketchikan Police Chief Jeffrey Walls has been placed on paid administrative leave after being indicted for felony third-degree assault and five lesser charges related to an incident Sept. 10 at Salmon Falls Resort.

“Chief Walls is currently on administrative leave while we complete our internal review,” Ketchikan City Manager Delilah Walsh wrote in a Jan. 4 email. “Deputy Chief Eric Mattson has assumed the role of acting chief.”

“We will do an internal investigation,” City Manager Delilah Walsh said in a telephone interview with the Ketchikan Daily News on Jan. 3.

Walls had continued to work as police chief through Jan. 3 after having been indicted on Dec. 29 by a Ketchikan grand jury on the one Class C felony and five misdemeanor charges related to the Sept. 10 incident.

Walls, who started work as Ketchikan police chief last March after a nearly 25-year law enforcement career in Louisiana, was at the Salmon Falls Resort restaurant with his spouse on the evening of Sept. 10 when a 36-year-old Washington man who court documents described as intoxicated and causing disturbances throughout the evening “intentionally bumped” into Jeffrey Walls’ bar chair and knocked Walls against the bar.

The man apologized. He and Walls shook hands, and the Wallses “believed the incident was over,” according to the court document. About an hour later, however, the man was on his way to the restroom when he “stumbled into” the chair of Walls’ spouse, “causing both Walls to hit the bar and each other.”

As the man continued toward the restroom, Walls is alleged to have gotten up from his seat, ran after the man and pushed him “head first” into a wall, then placed him “into what multiple witnesses described as a chokehold” that allegedly lasted between one and two minutes before other people were able to pull Walls away from the man, according to the court document. The man later received stitches on the side of his head.

Wall’s attorney, Jay Hochberg, wrote in an email to the Ketchikan Daily News on Dec. 29 that Walls was “simply detaining an individual who had committed a crime — and using reasonable force to do so.”

After the grand jury indicted Walls, he appeared at an arraignment before Ketchikan Superior Court Judge Katherine Lybrand. Hochberg entered a plea of not guilty on Walls’ behalf.

“To these false and defamatory allegations, we enter a plea of not guilty and demand a jury trial,” Hochberg said during the arraignment.

Lybrand released Walls on his own recognizance, setting conditions of release that included no contact with the alleged victim, no discussion of the case with witnesses, and prohibiting Walls from departing Ketchikan without written approval from the court.

Walls’ next court scheduled appearance is an omnibus hearing set for Feb. 7 in Ketchikan Superior Court. A jury trial is scheduled to start on March 13.