A federal judge has dismissed three of the five civil counts against former President Donald Trump and two others in connection with the death of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick during the January 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol, including a claim of wrongful death.
The lawsuit against Trump was initiated by Sandra Garza, Sicknick’s girlfriend, who sought damages for wrongful death, conspiracy to violate civil rights, and negligence under D.C’s anti-riot law. In her ruling, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta wrote that Garza could not claim damages associated under the Wrongful Death Act because she was not legally Sicknick’s spouse or domestic partner.
“Garza does not allege that she and Officer Sicknick filed the requisite ‘declaration of domestic partnership’ under District of Columbia law. Nor does she claim that they formed a domestic partnership under the law of any other jurisdiction,” wrote Mehta. “Her contention that a ‘domestic partnership’ was established simply by Officer Sicknick having identified Garza as his ‘domestic partner’ in his will finds no basis in the plain text of the statute. Garza therefore cannot recover the damages she personally seeks under the Act,” the judge continued.
While this is an obvious legal victory for Trump, the former president still faces two of the civil counts in the suit, as well as a number of other legal challenges in the coming weeks. Sicknick did not die on Jan 6, as first claimed by the media, but rather later from a stroke.
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