MILWAUKEE – After a lengthy delay stretching over three years, the trial of a former Milwaukee police officer accused of murder while off duty will officially begin today at the Milwaukee County Courthouse.
Michael Mattioli is charged with the death of Joel Acevedo stemming from the morning after a house party at Mattioli’s residence in April of 2020 during which the two engaged in a physical altercation leading to Mattioli allegedly applying a chokehold on Acevedo. Six days later, Acevedo died due to what the County Medical Examiner ruled was “traumatic suffocation” and deemed a homicide.
Mattioli was officially charged in May of that year, but pandemic-related delays, medical records requests, numerous pre-trial postponements, and the unexpected retirement of the former medical examiner Brian Peterson, delayed the start of the trial until today.
Mattioli officially entered his not guilty plea in September of 2020, the same month he resigned from MPD. From 2021 through the end of 2022, the trial was handed off to numerous different judges, and Peterson never provided availability for the trial despite multiple subpoenas being sent out.
Judge David Swanson will oversee the proceedings, while Milwaukee assistant district attorney Paul Tifflin will serve as the prosecutor and Craig Powell of Milwaukee law firm Hart Powell S.C. will be Mattioli’s defense attorney.
Jury selection begins today and the trial is expected to take one to two weeks; if convicted, Mattioli could be sentenced to 40 years in prison and 20 years of extended supervision.
