Chicago officer welcomed home

A Chicago police officer hopes to return to his job with a new perspective after spending nearly a year in an Iowa prison.

At a Sunday welcome-home event in the police union hall, Mike Mette said he would take Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis up on an offer to return to the force. He may be the first Chicago officer to rejoin the ranks after being convicted and spending time in jail.

"I can't imagine how hard it is for someone who doesn't have the support that I had," said 31-year-old Mette, adding, "If you make an arrest you better believe you're making it for the right reasons."

Mette was released from prison last week after an Iowa appeals court found another judge erred when she ruled Mette could have retreated from a fight three years ago in Dubuque. The appeals court ordered Mette, who said he acted in self-defense, to be acquitted of assault causing serious injury.

Weis, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, and Cook County State's Attorney Richard Devine had called for Mette's release. Mette said he will meet with Weis this week.

Bill Dougherty, vice president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 7, said he didn't know of a precedent to Mette's situation. Mette may have to do some retraining at the police academy, but after that nothing should keep him from stepping back into the role of officer, Dougherty said.

"I think a lot of the guys are very proud and happy that he didn't have to go through more of the appeals process, and that Iowa finally did the right thing," Dougherty said.

Mette said he went for his first motorcycle ride since his release Friday, only to be pulled over by police officers who wanted to congratulate him. That evening, while he was on his way to get his first Chicago hot-dog at the restaurant Portillo's, he said people on the street asked to shake his hand. When he was sitting in the restaurant, watching people outside and realizing again that he's free, Mette said he got choked up.

On Saturday he cut the long, shaggy hair he grew in prison. By Sunday he looked at home among friends on the force and family, who hugged and congratulated each other.

"The support (has) been wonderful," he said. "They call it a brotherhood for a reason."

Mette said he made friends in prison and never feared for his safety.

"There were fights, but over the same things everyone fights about," he said.

While in prison, Mette did landscaping at Iowa Central Community College in Fort Dodge and Iowa State University in Ames. He ate food that he said "kept getting worse." Family friends who live in Iowa visited him on the weekends his parents didn't make the six-hour trip to see him.

"We learned the jail card games and he learned cribbage," said Mette's father, Bob.

Many of his fellow inmates didn't know he was a police officer until recently, when media attention increased, Mette said. At least one other prisoner told Mette that he had been wrongly convicted, and now that he's out, Mette wants to look into the case.

"I think it changed him to see the other side of the law," said Mette's mother, Patti, 58, of Plainfield.

Mette said he feels vindicated and hopes his case will help reform the Iowa judicial system.

"They have a way of sweeping things under the rug," Mette said of Iowa authorities.