Former officer wants outside jury

Judge says she will make decision closer to trial

A former Milwaukee police officer charged with killing Joel Acevedo last year wants his homicide case heard by jurors from outside Milwaukee County, but a judge said Monday she’ll make that decision closer to trial.

Michael Mattioli, 33, is charged with first-degree reckless homicide. Acevedo, 25, died April 25, six days after police say 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, Mattioli says, before falling to the floor where Mattioli put him in a chokehold and called 911.

Mattioli quit the department in September after pleading not guilty to the criminal charges.

Last month, Mattioli’s lawyers filed motions to suppress statements he made to police, for Acevedo’s prior medical records and to move the trial, or bring in jurors from a distant county.

The request for an outside jury was not just over the level of publicity, they argued, but because it was tied into outrage over the officer-involved death of George Floyd in Minneapolis a few weeks later, which touched off a summer of nationwide protest about police brutality.

Lawyers for Acevedo’s family say the recording of the 911 call proves he was not an aggressor, was asking to go home, and was in a chokehold by Mattioli for more than 11 minutes, longer than an officer had his knee on Floyd’s neck in Minneapolis.

“Few if any stories noted the clear differences between this case and the others,” wrote Mattioli’s lawyers.

“While there was one superficial similarity — Mattioli was a police officer and Joel Acevedo was a person of color — in all other respects, this case has nothing in common with the issues being protested,” the defense motion states.

The defense noted that it was not only regular news media coverage, but commenters on social media and even a south side mural of Acevedo that are prejudicing potential jurors in the community.

Acevedo’s family has hired the same lawyer who represents Floyd’s family, and have been outspoken and critical about how Mattioli’s case has been handled.

In response, Assistant District Attorney Paul Tiffin noted that much of the online commentary comes from outside Milwaukee County, that actual news coverage was factual (and will likely be more than a year old by trial), and that the jury selection process will allow the two sides to winnow out possibly prejudiced jurors.

Circuit Judge Michelle Havas, noting that no trial date has been set and one isn’t likely for many months, said she would take the motion under advisement until some time closer to that future trial date, when the community’s memory of, and interest in the case might be different than it is today.

Havas did rule for the defense regarding Acevedo’s prior medical records.

Acevedo had “major medical problems“prior to the incident, according to his father, and the defense wants all records of his prior diagnoses and treatments “in order to ascertain whether his use of cocaine and alcohol could have exacerbated those conditions and contributed to his death.”

Prosecutors do not object to those records being reviewed privately by the judge for her determination of whether they might have value at trial.

Lastly, Mattioli’s lawyers contend any statements he made to police should be barred from evidence because he was not first read his rights to remain silent, or that his requests to have his attorney present were ignored and the statements were not made voluntarily.

Prosecutors argued Mattioli was not in custody when he made some of the statements, or had knowingly waived his right to remain silent before he made others.

After a brief argument Monday, Havas denied the motion to suppress. She said she reviewed the recordings prosecutors want to introduce, and found that in some Mattioli was not in custody, and that after he was, he clearly waived his right to remain silent and gave statements to investigators.

The case is due back before Havas April 28 for a status conference.