Ketchikan police chief to resign in exchange for dismissal of assault charges

Ketchikan’s police chief will resign next week under an agreement that dismisses criminal charges against him stemming from a 2022 off-duty altercation in a local restaurant that injured another man.

Jeffrey Walls, 48, signed the agreement with state prosecutors on Aug. 27 and also submitted his resignation to City Manager Delilah Walsh last week. He will step down from the post Monday, according to the resignation letter.

Walls was hired as Ketchikan’s police chief in December 2021 and was paid a salary of $132,000. Before that, he worked at the New Orleans Police Department for 24 years, most recently as the commander of a high-profile patrol district.

Walls was accused of injuring the other man during an encounter at the Salmon Falls resort restaurant in September 2022.

Walls and his wife were sitting at the bar when a stranger twice fell into or pushed their chairs, according to charges filed in the case. Witnesses told investigators Walls pursued the man after he walked away, pushed him and caused his head to hit a stone wall, then placed him in a chokehold while the man bled from a head wound, the charges said.

Walls claims he lawfully used force to detain the man before on-duty officers could arrive, according to information in court filings from his attorney, Jay Hochberg.

The other man was initially arrested on charges of assault, harassment and being drunk on a licensed premise based off citizen’s arrest documents signed by Walls and his wife, according to filings in that case. Those charges were later dismissed.

Walls was initially charged with assault and reckless endangerment that December.

He was ultimately indicted on a felony charge of third-degree assault three separate times by grand juries. The felony charge was dropped after a judge dismissed all three indictments after finding issues with the state’s grand jury presentations. Walls remained charged with five misdemeanors, which did not require a grand jury indictment.

The agreement dismisses three misdemeanor charges of fourth-degree assault and two counts of reckless endangerment against Walls in exchange for his resignation and a voluntary disqualification from holding law enforcement jobs in Alaska.

Walls was placed on paid administrative leave for more than eight months after the case began. He was reinstated as chief when the felony assault indictment was dismissed in August 2023 after the city concluded an internal investigation. City Manager Walsh at the time expressed “full confidence” in the chief.

Prosecutors disagree “with the conclusions of the City of Ketchikan’s investigation,” the agreement signed last week said.

While Walls maintains his innocence, the state still believes it can “prove every element of every charge beyond a reasonable doubt and disprove any potential justification defense beyond a reasonable doubt,” the agreement said.

In a resignation letter to Walsh, Walls wrote that he is retiring “for the personal reasons we discussed.”

“I know the police department is in a much better place than it was, and we have developed some strong leaders in the organization,” he wrote.

In a statement, Walsh said she had “full support” for Walls and said his “decision to retire and prioritize the well-being of his family is understandable and admirable.”

“The charges brought against Chief Walls and the resulting ordeal stretching nearly two years have been deeply troubling,” she wrote. “I am relieved that the false charges against him have finally been dismissed.”

Walls plans to move to the Lower 48 to help with family health matters and explore employment prospects in a new field, Hochberg said.

Walls has been “disappointed by this entire process” and decided months ago to retire from law enforcement after the case ended, Hochberg said this week.

He said his client has mixed feelings about the agreement because “he was looking forward to a public trial and an exoneration, but I encouraged him to accept a dismissal because it’s just not worth the stress and unpleasantness of having to face false charges.”

Deputy Chief Eric Mattson will serve as Ketchikan’s acting chief, with a recruitment effort to begin later, according to a memo to city officials last week.

Former Anchorage police officer Cornelius Pettus received a similar dismissal agreement last year in a case stemming from an on-duty incident where he was accused of punching, kicking and unlawfully arresting a man. Charges in federal and state cases, which ranged from misdemeanor assault to civil rights violations and falsification of records during a federal investigation, were dismissed when Pettus agreed to resign from the department and not seek employment in law enforcement elsewhere.