MILWAUKEE — The trial for Michael Mattioli, the former Milwaukee police officer charged with homicide in the death of Joel Acevedo, has been pushed back almost a year, an attorney tells TMJ4 News.
Mattioli is facing one count of 1st Degree Reckless Homicide. Prosecutors say the homicide happened at a party at Mattioli's home in April 2020 when he was off duty. They allege Mattioli put Acevedo in a chokehold after an argument escalated and Acevedo later died.
The Acevedo family's attorney, B'Ivory Lamarr, tells TMJ4 News the trial was pushed back to sometime in June of next year.
Mattioli resigned from the police department in September of 2021, after serving as an officer since 2009.
The trial was set to begin in November, but now will start in June 2023. Three years since Joel's death.
"I feel defeated in the court today. I felt discouraged," said Maribel Acevedo, Joel Acevedo's mother. "We want accountability," his father, Jose added.
"It's been a roller coaster ride for us," Jose said.
The state said they are having a hard time getting a hold of a key witness: former Milwaukee County Medical Examiner, Dr. Brian Peterson.
Peterson suddenly retired back in September.
When we reached out to the county executive's office Friday, they told us it was an emergency retirement.
However, in an exclusive text exchange, Peterson said he did not initiate the departure and was asked to leave and given the option to retire.
Acevedo's family attorney B'Ivory LaMarr said he's seen other criminal cases move forward without the person who conducted the autopsy.
"The medical examiner's office has other medical examiners who can look at the findings and look at his reports and offer or affirm his findings," LaMarr said.
"We have the evidence," Jose said. "We don't need no medical specialist to say what's already in the 9-1-1 recording."
LaMarr says he's frustrated because this case is not the only one in limbo.
"There's a couple of cases that I'm part of with the medical examiner's office that has been held up," he said.
We asked the district attorney's office how many other cases this impacts, but did not hear back.
For the Acevedo family, closure begins when the trail does.
"I need some sort of closure to continue to heal," Maribel said.
TMJ4's I-TEAM wanted to know more about that text exchange between TMJ4's Ubah Ali and Dr. Peterson, where he said "he was asked to leave and given the option to retire. He says, he chose to retire."
The county executive's office tells our I-TEAM that decision happened during a conversation between Peterson and human resources.
The county executive's spokesperson did not make it clear why that conversation with Peterson was initiated in the first place.
