Fellow officer needs your help

Once again a cop is getting screwed because he's a cop. Let's use this forum for what it should be used for... information and action.


By John Kass, Chicago Tribune
This officer's sentence is hogwash


Published July 15, 2007

In an Iowa criminal case that smells of a thousand hogs, a young Chicago police officer was sentenced last week to 5 years in prison for defending himself against an attack by two large, drunken men, even though he testified that he repeatedly tried avoiding a fight.

There is a U.S. Department of Justice office in Iowa. What is happening to Chicago police officer Michael Mette bears some serious federal inquiry.

Dubuque District Court Judge Monica Ackley agrees Mette was attacked, he tried to avoid conflict, two large men hounded him down the street, and one of them got into Mette's face and began pushing him, repeatedly, before Mette threw one punch and knocked the guy out.

Still, she's sentencing this young Chicago cop to prison, she wrote, because that's the law in Iowa.

Mette has no clout in Dubuque. But Dubuque is a small town, and the intoxicated man's daddy is a boss in a giant Iowa trucking company.

Early last Thursday morning, I spoke with Mette, a four-year police officer in the Harrison District, and his father, Bob Mette, a veteran detective now running the Cook County state's attorney's sex crimes investigation unit. I asked Mike Mette about prison.

"To tell you the truth, it is not something I think about," he said about the sentence he will begin serving in October if an appeal isn't successful. "I am assuming I am going to get my ass kicked once the inmates find out I am a police officer."

There was no trembling on his face, no Oprah moment, just a straight look, a cop's look: "I know it's not going to be easy. Not thinking about it has kept me sane."

Mette told me his story. But these facts are also in court documents and Judge Ackley's written ruling.

Mette and his brother Marc, a former student at the University of Dubuque, along with a few other friends, were in that town for Marc's birthday on Oct. 8, 2005. They had a few drinks and heard about a house party. When they arrived, two college students at the door said the beer was downstairs, for $5 a head. They went down to check out the party.

"There was absolutely nobody in the basement," Mette told me. "There was a keg in the corner. Nobody there. We took a look, and said, let's get out of here."

That took about a minute. They did not drink a drop. They left.

But the kegger host, Dubuque University golfer Jacob Gothard, became enraged and started calling them "ignorant and offensive names," the judge ruled.

Gothard had been drinking heavily for hours. His blood alcohol level would later be measured as .310, almost four times the legal limit in Illinois. No matter what side of the Mississippi you're on, that's blind drunk.

Gothard shouted that he would call police and brandished a cell phone; then, Gothard told police, he couldn't find the phone -- he assumed someone stole it.

Mette, 30, who is about 6 feet tall and 190 pounds, left with his brother and a couple others, including a 5-foot, 8-inch friend of theirs, Chris Tanner. They walked down the street to Marc Mette's home. Just then, Gothard, who is about 6 feet, 2 inches and his roommate, Nicholas Boyd, a 6-foot, 8-inch, 240-pound basketball player from Downers Grove, chased them.

Gothard ran up to Mette and pushed him, hard, with both fists in the chest, "at least two times, maybe three," Judge Ackley wrote. After repeatedly trying to avoid a fight, Mette felt he had no choice. He threw a punch. Gothard was knocked unconscious to the ground.

Prosecutor Timothy Gallagher said that Gothard was severely injured and had to be airlifted to a hospital. The prosecution's case was that Gothard was near death, suffering from a broken jaw, and nose and bleeding on the brain. He was hurt, certainly, but if he hadn't liquored up and chased strangers and pushed them, he would have been fine.

A few months afterward, Gothard was posting killer golf scores for the college golf team. So he wasn't that injured. He was drunk, yet prosecutors didn't pursue that angle.

"When his cell phone disappeared, that's what put him out into the public [way]," Gallagher said, suggesting it's OK to charge down the street in a drunken rage and push strangers. "His claim was that he was the victim."

Jake's father, Curt Gothard, did not return a phone call. He spent more time in court than his son, who, when he wasn't posting great golf scores, was posting high levels of intoxication. After his dust-up with Mette, Jake Gothard was convicted for driving under the influence.

Gothard will golf. Boyd will dribble a basketball. And Mike Mette will go to prison.

"It's been a two-year nightmare," said Mike's father, Bob. "My stomach has got to have a hole the size of the Grand Canyon."

Iowa is celebrated for corn, for decent people, and for that fantasy baseball park built on a farm at the end of a dirt road, with the baseball immortals stepping out from the cornstalks whispering, if you build it, they will come.

Mette played baseball in college. But what's happening to him isn't about Iowa baseball mythology. It doesn't smell of corn.

It stinks of the pig barn.

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jskass@tribune.com


Please take time to write or call your protest of this outrage to:

Hon. Monica Ackley
Firm: State of Iowa, District Court, 1st District
Address: Dubuque County Courthouse
720 Central Ave.
P.O. Box 1220
Dubuque, IA 52004-1220
Phone: (563) 589-4446
Fax: (563) 589-4593
E-mail: Web site: http://www.judicial.state.ia.us/district/d1.asp

I do not see this person getting screwed because he is a cop. He is benig charged with a crime because he hit a drunken person who posed no threat to him. He should have redirected him if he charged him or called the cops himself if the guy continued but clearly with a BAC that high how can you possibly argue that the guy posed a serious threat to anyone but himself.

I am sorry but this has nothing to do with him being a cop and has everything to do with using poor judgement. As a cop he should have known better!!

Maybe he should call the FOP to give him further legal assistance :wink:

Yeah ! Fry this guy. No real cop would stand his ground and defend himself. This guy has to be a FOP member. A non-FOP member would have just taken the beating like a man and not fought back.

"His blood alcohol level would later be measured as .310, almost four times the legal limit in Illinois."

Defend himself against what? A person falling over on him...not much of a threat. All this talk about cops using descretion; he should have used some in this case.

If you really want to help a cop how about reading a few threads down where a PBSO motor officer is now suffering from paralysis from a critical on-duty accident.

The above posters are all moronic snake sucking, panty wastes who need a good ass-kicking.

To the above posters who condem this copper: you are dillusional. Striking someone back after they have repeatedly attacked you and you try to walk away is not "poor judgment", it's called self defense. I don't care what a persons blood alcohol level is. I have personally seen people with higher BAC do severe damage to other people. Based on your f**ked up logic, the poor battered wife who's husband is a stumbling drunk, should just walk away or take her licks like a good little girl.

I imagine you are not the police and are just some troll who wandered on to this site to put in your two pithy cents. And if you are the police and truley stand by your comments, then shame on you. God help you if you're ever in a situation where your "poor judgment" is called into question.

Don't argue with me. Argue with the jury that convicted him. Obviously I am not alone in my thinking.

As I said before, if you want a true hero to support, donate to the PBSO officer and stop wasting time trying to justify an idea instead of a logic...

Guest,

You're right, you are not alone, the world is full of puss*@s and morons. Count yourself among both groups. Was Mette to assume that the 6'2" and 6'8" subjects weren't dangerous just because they were drunk. Many extreme drunks have maimed or killed others. Lets not forget that you, yes even a puss*@y like you, has a right to self defense.

Guest regarding the PBSO deputy.
If you had read the post, you would have seen that his motorcycle crash was off duty, not on duty. This does not diminish the tragedy of his circumstances and I would encourage all to assist him in any way possible, because he is a fellow law enforcement officer. But, that being said, we still have a responsibility to support another officer who is being railroaded by the system that he has sworn to support. Put yourself in the position of walking down the street and being accosted by two very large individuals who begin pushing you around. You do your best to avoid the confrontation and they persist. So you defend yourself with a single punch and ending the altercation. Now you are prosecuted for that. Ah, what am I arguing with you for? You're a jerk and a hypocrite.