MILWAUKEE — The Michael Mattioli trial comes more than three and a half years after he was charged in the 2020 death of Joel Acevedo.
Legal experts say the lengthy delay is partially due to the felony case backlog stemming from the start of the pandemic.
Let’s go in-depth on new data that shows little progress has been made in Milwaukee County’s court system to get caught up.
"It's disappointing to all of us,” said Judge Mark Sanders.
Judge Sanders says the biggest disappointment is some cases are taking years longer than usual to resolve.
"I absolutely understand that for victims and that for defendants that when cases are pending for longer than they should be, that it can be enormously frustrating,” he said.
Milwaukee County Circuit Court data shows 1,487 felony cases are part of the backlog. That’s just 83 fewer than there were at the start of the year.
The backlog is calculated by taking the current number of pending felony cases and comparing it to the amount prior to the pandemic.
Currently, felony court judges are handling an average of 93 more cases at a time compared to March 2020.
“In terms of numbers, not a lot of progress has been made,” Judge Sanders said.
The problem started when COVID-19 hit the state and the court system was forced to shut down criminal case trials for several months. In the following months, just a handful of jury trial courtrooms reopened due to precautions that were in place.
Meanwhile, homicides skyrocketed in the city. As cases piled up, so too did staffing challenges.
Retired Chief Judge Mary Triggiano says a lack of resources remains the primary problem despite a $14 million investment to attract prosecutors and public defenders.
"Every stakeholder group seems to be down in staffing anywhere from 30 to 40 percent and when you're trying to handle cases and figure out jury trials, you actually need more people than less to chip away at that backlog,” she said.
Judge Sanders says homicide and sexual assault cases generally aren’t being held up by this backlog because the court system added another courtroom to address those serious crimes. He says other types of felony cases are seeing the biggest delays.
"Particularly if a defendant is out of custody, it can be difficult to get those cases to go to trial because sometimes there are other cases that have to be taken care of first,” he said.
While many hoped the backlog would be cleared by 2024, Judge Sanders says it’s something that can’t be rushed.
"We can force lawyers to try to resolve cases early, we can pressure lawyers to try to get things taken care of, but by doing that we risk compromising the quality of the result and the quality of the representation,” he said.
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