MILWAUKEE — 101.7 The Truth’s Dr. Ken Harris, a retired Lieutenant with the Milwaukee Police Department, joined John Mercure on Wisconsin’s Afternoon News to dissect the not-guilty verdict handed to former MPD officer Michael Mattioli in the 2020 killing of Joel Acevedo.
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BREAKING NEWS STORY: Former Milwaukee officer Mattioli found not guilty of first-degree reckless homicide
Mattioli faced a first-degree reckless homicide charge for the April 2020 death of Joel Acevedo.
Court records show Acevedo was at a party in Mattioli’s home in April 2020. The following morning near the end of the party, Mattioli and Acevedo got into an argument and Mattioli restrained Acevedo for several minutes.
Prosecutors say Acevedo was unable to breathe under Mattioli’s weight. Acevedo died six days later in the hospital.
Mattioli was officially charged in May 2020, 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 November 6, 2023.
Mattioli officially entered his not-guilty plea in September 2020, the same month he resigned from MPD. From 2021 through the end of 2022, the trial was handed off to numerous judges, and Peterson never provided availability for the trial despite multiple subpoenas being sent out.
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