Former Milwaukee police officer Michael Mattioli takes stand in day 4 of trial

 

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Michael Mattioli was one of five witnesses to take the stand Thursday Nov. 9, in his own homicide trial to talk about the death of 25-year-old Joel Acevedo.

Acevedo died several days later in the hospital after Milwaukee police said Mattioli put him in a chokehold at his house party in April of 2020.

In day four of the trial, Mattioli went over the series of events that led up to the fight with Acevedo and why he restrained him.

"I looked at Christopher and I said he was stealing from me,' and the next thing I know Joel swings and punches Christopher right in the face…and it was a hard punch I could, I could hear the connection," said Mattioli. "I got on top of him and tried to basically wrestle him to the ground, trying to hold his arms around his back several times."

The former Milwaukee police officer is accused of homicide in the death of Joel Acevedo.

Questions intensified as Mattioli was cross-examined by Assistant District Attorney Paul Tiffin.

"So today in court, you've testified that you checked to see if Mr. Acevedo was okay in terms of his breathing, correct?" asked Tiffin.

"Correct," answered Mattioli.

"You didn't tell that to investigator Natalie, did you? During that interview? That statement's not there," Tiffin replied.

Mattioli claimed he didn't want to hurt Acevedo, he wanted to detain him.

"I know what I did, I know I wasn't choking him, so I thought, I thought he would be okay. I didn't think there was any way he could be hurt like that and I just, didn't process it, it didn't make sense to me," said Mattioli.

Among other witnesses taking the stand Thursday was former Milwaukee County Medical Examiner Jeffrey Jentzen, who left in 2008.

"There's no objective evidence that there was compression of the neck area," testified Dr. Jentzen.

Dr. Jentzen does not agree with Acevedo's cause or manner of death.

"My opinion that the cause of death was prone restraint cardiac arrest, and that the manner of death, in my opinion, was indeterminant," he said.

Trial continues Friday morning with closing arguments and the start of jury deliberations.

CBS 58 will have continued overage Friday.