After Kiski Township police Sgt. Thomas Dessell, four other officers and the police secretary quit in protest in early July, the township supervisors whose actions they objected to have scrambled to replace the officers. The township is recovering from the mass resignation. The township supervisors have restored the positions with
He testified that the officer connected with a knee and took a blow to his face, but he shied away from detailing the exchange blow by blow. I m not watching the guy s movements, Mattiello said. I m in the fight. You know. I shouldn t have to go through that.
Mattiello was the first witness in the case, taking questions from Assistant Attorney General Daniel Guglielmo before Magistrate Judge J. Patrick O Neill.
He had been arrested in the wake of a domestic incident involving his brother. He was accused of assaulting his brother with a piece of aluminum. Taken into custody by Leonard and Officer Zachary Burns, he faced a charge of felony assault.