CPD Officer Michael Mette Facing Possible Suspension

By Prescott Carlson in News on May 14, 2010 8:40PM

A punch thrown by Chicago Police officer Michael Mette almost five years ago is still haunting him, despite his conviction being overturned in 2008. Mette was visiting his brother in Dubuque, Iowa, in October of 2005 when he got into an altercation with 20-year-old Jake Gothard. Mette punched Gothard in the face, resulting in a broken nose, cheek and jaw. Despite Mette's insistence that the punch was in self-defense, he was convicted of assault and sentenced to five years in prison. In an interview with Windy Citizen, Mette blamed his conviction on "the corruption inside a Dubuque courthouse."

Mette caught a break in 2008, when the Iowa Court of Appeals overturned his conviction, agreeing that the case was a matter of self-defense. Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis had also sent a letter to Iowa's Attorney General insisting on Mette's innocence.

But the saga is not over -- Chicago's Independent Police Review Authority is still involved, and is recommending Mette receive a 90-day unpaid suspension over the incident. The agency, formed in 2007 to look into claims of excessive force against officers, will present their case at a yet-to-be-scheduled hearing in front of a three-member panel of the Chicago Police Board for a final decision.

Mette's family tells the Sun-Times that they think "it's not fair" for Mette to receive a suspension for a crime that was overturned by the appeals court, with Mette's father quoted as calling it "unbelievable." However, a spokesperson for the agency told the paper that the outcome of Mette's criminal case is irrelevant, saying that their concern is with officers who violate police rules in general, not just ones that are criminal cases. The agency ruled that Mette brought discredit to the department by getting arrested in the first place, by "conspiring with a family member to give a false account to police" and other infractions.