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 . According to court documents , Mette and his friends entered the house party , but decided to leave without paying the required $ 5 entry fee when they saw the room was mostly empty . Gotthard became angry , and with the help of his roommate , began chasing Mette down the street . Gotthard claims someone in Mette 's group had stolen his cell phone and he wanted it back . Exactly what happened to the cell phone is still unclear . The altercation continued a block and a half down the street and eventually ended up in front of the house of Mette 's brother . Fight could land cop in prison » . `` That 's when Mr. Gotthard hit me . He hit me with two fists like this , straight into the chest , '' Mette said . `` He was yelling about his cell phone , telling me if he did n't get his cell phone back he was going to beat the crap out of me . He hit me several more times and then I pushed him away from me . It was n't until after the third time is when he came back at me again and that is when I struck him . '' When police arrived , they found Gotthard lying on the ground with bruises and lacerations on his face , cheek , nose , chin and forehead . Mette , who had blood on his shirt and whose knuckle was bruised and cut , was arrested and charged with a felony . `` [ Gotthard ] had bruises on the side of his neck , his arms , his elbow , his shoulders , on his back , that were simply not consistent with Mr. Mette 's version that he only struck him once , '' said Assistant County Attorney Tim Gallagher . Dubuque doctors testified the injuries were consistent with someone who had been stomped and kicked . But a doctor testifying for Mette 's defense rejected the Dubuque findings . He said all those injuries could have come from Mette 's single punch and the impact from falling on the sidewalk . Gallagher said the decision to prosecute Mette was a tough one . `` It 's never an easy situation when someone is sentenced to prison , particularly when it 's a police officer that we have to rely on , '' he said . `` But we ca n't allow individuals to be given certain privileges because of their occupation . '' The case spawned a battle between newspaper columnists in Chicago and Dubuque . `` Mette played baseball in college . But what 's happening to him is n't about Iowa baseball mythology . It does n't smell of corn . It stinks of the pig barn , '' wrote Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass . He chalks the judge 's decision up to small town politics . In a reply , a columnist for the Dubuque Telegraph Herald wrote that Kass is a `` legendary muckraker '' who is `` training his scorn '' on Ackley , the judge . Mette is currently on unpaid leave from the Chicago Police Department and is appealing his case . He will begin serving his five-year sentence in November . E-mail to a friend .
Gotthard , a Iowa police officer , is heading to prison almost five years . He says he was acting in self-defense when he punched Mette . Doctors testified Jake Gotthard appeared as though he had been stomped , kicked . Mette , currently on unpaid leave , is appealing the court 's decision .