CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- Mike Mette has been a Chicago police officer for almost four years. But now, as a result of a fistfight one night in Dubuque, Iowa, he is a convicted felon. Mike Mette, a Chicago police officer, says he acted in self-defense when he punched Jake Gotthard, a student at the University of Dubuque. Mette has been sentenced to almost five years in prison after Dubuque County Judge Monica Ackley found him guilty of assault causing serious injury. Mette says he's been wronged. "I was arrested for self-defense ... I was defending myself," he said. Mette's saga started in October 2005 after a night of drinking in Dubuque, where he was visiting his brother Mark. After the bars closed, Mette and his crew made their way to an after-hours party thrown by Jake Gotthard, a student at the University of Dubuque.
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Mike Mette, a Chicago police officer, is heading to prison this November
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He says he was acting in self-defense when he punched Jake Gotthard
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Doctors testified Gotthard appeared as though he had been stomped, kicked
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Mette, currently on unpaid leave, is appealing the court's decision
The case spawned a battle between newspaper columnists in Chicago and @placeholder.