Walker, Hamilton & Kearns attorneys Walter “Skip” Walker, Jeff Walker and Clarissa Kearns have been named finalists for the 2026 San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association (SFTLA) Trial Lawyer of the Year award. Awards are presented at a spring gala.

About the Case: Gold v. California Highway Patrol

On July 23, 2019, a young man named Ari Gold got so high on methamphetamine that he thought the devil was after him. He stole a truck in Monterey and drove it recklessly across town to Salinas, nearly hitting a car carrying the wife and daughter of a CHP officer, and striking a parked car before abandoning the truck in the driveway of an upscale home. The CHP’s officer’s wife called her husband, who immediately raced to the home where the truck had been abandoned. A neighbor called 911 and a second CHP officer showed up at the scene.

The two officers were trying to decide what to do when the homeowner showed up. The homeowner was, in fact, Ari’s grandmother. Ari had gone to the house seeking refuge, grabbed a pistol from his uncle’s room and locked himself in the primary bedroom suite. The officers knew only that a reckless driver had been seen running toward the house. They asked the homeowner for her keys and entered the house with their guns drawn. Finding the locked door, they forced it open and then went their separate ways inside the suite. According to Officer Cho, she entered the bathroom, pushed aside a shower curtain, and discovered Ari sitting on the backsplash, pointing a gun at her. She proceeded to fire her own gun 16 times. Officer Weaver, who had been searching the bedroom, heard the shots and began firing his gun through walls without knowing what he was shooting at. He fired 28 times and hit Ari twice. The second shot left Ari quadriplegic.

Despite his quadriplegia, Ari was tried and convicted of assaulting a police officer. He died while his appeal was pending, thereby causing the conviction to be abated. His civil attorney, however, had resigned from the case after his criminal conviction and so Ari’s mother reached out to Skip Walker, who, together with his son Jeff Walker, reviewed the criminal transcript, examined the evidence, and learned that Officer Cho had missed every one of her 16 shots despite firing from an admitted distance of two and half to five feet away, that Officer Weaver had fired blindly through walls and furniture, and that Ari had never fired his gun at all. As the evidence from the criminal trial grew more and more suspect, their partner Clarissa Kearns joined them in developing the case. Eight experts were hired, including a blood spatter expert, a pathologist, and a biomechanic. Despite all the preparation, when Skip, Jeff and Clarissa arrived in Federal court for trial, they were informed that they had 10 hours to put on their entire case, plus 15 minutes for voir dire.

Nevertheless, at trial the plaintiffs’ team was able meticulously to pick apart the officers’ stories. Despite the fact that the defendants refused ever to offer any money whatsoever, the jury returned with a verdict of $9,233,835 plus punitive damages against the two officers. Before the punitive phase could begin, the CHP agreed to pay $10,000,000.