All but one juror voted to acquit Richmond police officer who struck man 35 times with stun gun

RICHMOND — An ex-Richmond police officer was one juror away from being acquitted of felony assault with a deadly weapon for using his stun gun to hit a man 35 times during a 2022 arrest.

In the trial of Eric Smith Jr., 11 of 12 jurors voted not guilty but one wouldn’t budge. Last week, Contra Costa Judge John Kennedy dismissed the jury and declared a mistrial, according to court records and attorneys familiar with the case.

Smith, who was fired from the Richmond Police Department over the incident, was charged in 2022 with assault with a deadly weapon and enhancements for allegedly causing great bodily injury after using a stun gun on a then-33-year-old man. Video of the incident shows Smith using his stun gun, then jumping on the man, kicking him on the ground and striking him with a Taser dozens of times.

The 33-year-old man was with a second person, who ran from Smith and escaped arrest, authorities said.

Smith’s lawyer, Harry Stern, said in a statement to this news organization that the outcome was “extremely gratifying.” He argued that Smith, who had just chased the alleged victim from Richmond to San Pablo, was justified in using force against a suspect who resisted arrest.

“(Smith) was an excellent witness and clearly explained why he was forced to protect himself in this dangerous situation,” Stern said.

The incident occurred at 1 a.m. on April 9, 2022 on San Pablo Avenue in San Pablo.

At the time of Smith’s arrest, then-Chief Bisa French issued a statement calling Smith’s actions “unacceptable” and a deviation from police training. The city’s new chief, Timothy Simmons, didn’t immediately return a request for comment. Simmons was sworn in just three days ago.

The alleged victim was suspected of earlier evading police during a brief car chase in Richmond. Smith spotted the man in a parking lot and attempted to arrest him. He later wrote in a report he believed the man was armed and was resisting arrest, but no gun was ever found.

The Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office announced the hung jury on Friday in a brief news release that doesn’t mention the 11-1 tally favoring the defense. The news release says Smith is next due in court on Feb. 2 “to schedule either a new trial or other pre-trial matters.” Prosecutors haven’t made a decision whether to re-try Smith, authorities said.

Sgt. Ben Therriault, the president of the Richmond police officers’ union, said the verdict “raises serious and troubling questions” about how the department’s investigation reached a different conclusion than 11 of the jurors.

“This was not a good faith investigation searching for the truth. It was an investigation that started with a predetermined conclusion and worked backward to justify criminal charges,” Therriault said, adding that the alleged victim had a “documented history of violence, active resistance,” and that Smith faced a “rapidly evolving threat.”

In 2022, a man sued Smith and fellow Richmond police Officer Karl Marecek, alleging the two were “malicious, sadistic, wanton, and oppressive” during a December 2021 arrest and that Smith “threw his arm” around the man and “ripped him to the ground,” then jumped on his back. The suit settled in 2023, court records show.

Smith, a Brentwood native, previously worked for the San Francisco Sheriff’s Office and the Pittsburg Police Department, as well as served a prior stint briefly with RPD, according to state payroll records. In June 2021, the city of Richmond released a short biographical video about Smith in which he called law enforcement “my calling” and said his goal was to “be on the street where I can reach people and prevent them from getting to the county jail.

“I just wanna be somewhere where I’m long gone, 30 years from now, people can say, ‘Yeah maybe I didn’t like this situation but Officer Smith showed me that there’s hope,'” he says on the video.

Criminal cases filed against police officers for using force, while rare, have proven difficult to prosecute in Contra Costa. In 2012, a jury acquitted former Richmond police Officer Dedrick Riley of assault charges related to a 2009 drug arrest. Riley stayed on the force, became the subject of at least two more administrative investigations and retired last year before the most recent probe could be completed.

In 2023, ex-Antioch police Officer Matthew Nutt was acquitted of a misdemeanor for kicking a handcuffed suspect. The verdict — lauded by the city’s police union — came just two months before 14 other ex-East Contra Costa cops were charged in federal and state court with dozens of alleged crimes. One later pleaded guilty to violent civil rights violations in federal court, and two others were convicted either of hurting a man without cause or conspiring to violate civil rights.

In 2021, former Contra Costa Sheriff’s Deputy Andrew Hall was convicted of assault for shooting a 32-year-old Newark man during a low-speed chase in Danville. Jurors could not reach a verdict on a manslaughter charge, and Hall was released from prison last year after serving roughly half of a six-year sentence.