Ketchikan’s police chief returned to the job last month after a felony assault charge against him stemming from an off-duty altercation at a restaurant was dismissed by a Ketchikan Superior Court judge in mid-August.
Jeffrey Walls, 47, was indicted in December on six criminal charges including assault. He spent more than eight months on paid administrative leave as the case proceeded, and as city officials conducted an internal review.
Walls remains charged with five misdemeanors for assault and reckless endangerment. The altercation took place in front of numerous witnesses at the Salmon Falls Resort restaurant on Sept. 10, 2022.
Walls was off duty and sitting with his wife when a 36-year-old Washington state man they did not know twice pushed or fell into their chairs, according to court documents filed in the case. Witnesses told investigators they saw Walls pursue the man after he walked away. He then pushed the man, causing his head to hit a stone wall, and put him in a chokehold.
One witness described the man as “limp and defenseless” during the hold, a prosecutor wrote. Multiple people told investigators they pulled Walls away from the man.
Walls took action to detain the man for arriving officers based on his law enforcement training, his attorney argued in court filings.
The man, who was bleeding from a head wound, was initially arrested on charges of assault, harassment and being drunk on a licensed premises based on citizen’s arrest documents signed by Walls and his wife at the restaurant. The charges against the man were later dismissed.
In late December, Walls was indicted on a felony assault charge after prosecutors presented the case to a grand jury. His attorney in June filed a motion to dismiss the felony charge, arguing that prosecutors misled the grand jury by incorrectly describing the use of force a law enforcement officer is permitted to use, whether on or off duty, while detaining someone.
Ketchikan Superior Court Judge Katherine Lybrand on Aug. 12 granted the motion to dismiss the felony charge.
Once the felony charge was dismissed, City Manager Delilah Walsh said she asked Walls to return to work on Aug. 22. Walsh said in a statement that she has “full confidence” in Walls, who was hired in December 2021 after 24 years with the New Orleans Police Department.
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