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Smith asks the Commission to declare her husband’s suicide a death in the line of duty, so that she can continue to receive health and financial benefits. His lawyer used his brief meeting with Biden at the White House on Thursday, just after the official signing ceremony for the Congressional Gold Medal measure for officers, to urge him to act.
“I told him it’s a good first step that you recognize the sacrifice of Jeffrey Smith and Howard Liebengood, but the gold medal is not enough,” Smith’s attorney David Weber told CNN. “I asked the president, did you know they took health insurance from their wives and I’m fighting for Jeffrey Smith [suicide] ruled a line of duty death? “
Capitol Police Officer Howard Liebengood committed suicide on January 9. His widow, Serena Liebengood, wrote an open letter to Representative Jennifer Wexton, a Democrat from Virginia, in March calling for the United States Capitol Police to declare her husband dead in the line of duty.
A video from last Thursday at the White House captures Weber behind the podium where the President had spoken earlier, as Vice President Kamala Harris chats with Erin Smith. As Biden prepares to return to the White House, Weber catches his attention and beckons Erin to explain the legal battle they are waging.
“He winced,” Weber recalls. “But then he motioned to a legislative assistant.”
Weber said he got a call less than 90 minutes after leaving their photoshoot inside the Oval Office. A White House aide told Weber that Biden had requested a briefing on the matter but that there was no commitment as to whether the president could ultimately help their case.
“They were very careful,” Weber said.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The problem has now come to the fore since four officers – three Metropolitan Police officers and one Capitol Police officer – have died by suicide since January 6. an officer dies in the line of duty and the mayor determines that the death was not caused “by his intention to cause his own death”. Weber says there are no known cases in which the suicide of a Metropolitan Police officer was pronounced dead in the line of duty.
But Weber argues that the circumstances of Agent Smith’s case call for an exception to the rule. The legal file filed with the Police Commission indicates that Constable Smith was assaulted by the violent mob and hit on the head with a metal pole on January 6; he died nine days later after shooting himself in the head on his way to work from his home in Virginia to report for his scheduled shift. It was supposed to be his first day back after seeing a doctor about the injuries and mental trauma he suffered on January 6.
“Although the bullet may have been the actual cause of death,” Weber told CNN, “the chain of events was set off on January 6 and the chain was not broken.”
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office and the Metropolitan Police Department did not respond to CNN’s requests for comment.
Weber brought in two experts to argue before the Police Commission that January 6 was the event that directly led to his suicide. Jonathan Arden, the former Chief Medical Examiner for the District of Columbia, who was hired to review Constable Smith’s autopsy and medical records, said in a file that the “acute and triggering event” that caused his death “was his occupational exposure to the traumatic events he suffered on January 6, 2021.”
Officer Liebengood’s widow also recounted in her open letter how he was ordered to remain on duty “almost 24 hours a day” for three days after the Capitol attack, and how he was “severely deprived of sleep “before his suicide on January 9.
The Office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has urged the Justice Department to approve the benefits of office in Liebengood’s case. A Pelosi spokesperson said the concerns raised by Officer Liebengood’s widow were “well-founded”. If they don’t, she said, Congress would look for ways to change the law.
Agent Smith’s case, however, would require a change in DC law or an exemption from the mayor.
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