Cop’s chokehold death case advanced for trial
The suspended Milwaukee police officer charged with fatally choking a friend after a night of drinking in April was bound over for trial after a preliminary hearing Monday.
The hearing featured two investigators’ testimony about a 911 call, responding officers’ body camera recordings, and statements Michael Mattioli made that day.
Mattioli, 32, is charged with first-degree reckless homicide in the death of Joel Acevedo, who died April 25, six days after Mattioli put him in a chokehold during an off-duty argument at Mattioli’s house, where the men and two others had spent the previous evening partying together.
The next morning, Mattioli has told investigators, he awoke to Acevedo going through his pockets. The men argued, went downstairs, and Acevedo punched one of the other friends before falling to the floor where Mattioli put him in a chokehold and called 911.
Mattioli’s postponed preliminary hearing was held Monday. Two investigators from the District Attorney’s office described the three and half minute 911 call made during the struggle, body camera recordings from responding officers, and statements Mattioli made directly to one of the investigators.
DA’s investigator Sarah Blomme first described listening to the 911 call Mattioli made. She described hearing lots of distressed breathing, gasping and loud snorts which she presumed was from Acevedo. She also described Mattioli as saying, “Just (expletive) lay down you (expletive), you did this.”
Investigator David Dalland described arriving at the scene about four hours later, and talking to Mattioli in a squad car. Dalland said in the car, before Mattioli had been formally arrested or read his Miranda rights, he asked, “Is that (expletive) dead?”
Dalland said, no but that Acevedo — who didn’t have a pulse and wasn’t breathing when paramedics arrived, but was taken to a hospital after a pulse was restored — was in bad shape. He testified that Mattioli responded, “Well (expletive) him. He stole from me. I don’t care what kind of shape he’s in.”
Defense attorney Michael F. Hart seized on a few points during his questioning of the two witnesses. He asked Blomme, who was present for Mattioli’s autopsy, whether the fact Acevedo’s heart had already been removed for transplant purposes, affected the medical examiner’s conclusions about the cause and manner of Acevedo’s death. She said she did not know.
Hart also suggested the “thoracic compression” that led to traumatic asphyxia could have been caused by CPR attempts by police and paramedics. Blomme said she believed that was a result of Mattioli’s chokehold while his full body weight was on Acevedo’s chest, as seen on the body cam video of the first officer to enter Mattioli’s kitchen.
Hart also brought up that the autopsy report notes the external exam of Acevedo’s neck was “unremarkable” and that Acevedo’s blood alcohol concentration the morning of the incident was .227.
Dalland testified that during a voluntary statement after he had been arrested, Mattioli said he knew how much force it takes to kill someone with a chokehold, and that he used less than that on Acevedo, whom he was merely trying to subdue until police came.
Mayor Tom Barrett has called for Mattioli to be fired, and former Police Chief Alfonso Morales said he couldn’t because the Fire and Police Commission had taken over the internal review of the incident. The commission in July released disciplinary charges but had taken no action to fire Mattioli.
Mattioli returns to court next week for arraignment.