Statement

Contact: Raina Smith

Phone: 401-826-9100
trilloforgovernor2018@gmail.com

October 12, 2018

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Independent Gubernatorial Candidate Joe Trillo

Releases Statement on Mattiello Statement
(Cranston, RI) - Today, Independent candidate for governor Joe Trillo released the following statement
regarding a 1975 incident with Nicholas Mattiello.

“In July of 1975, during a heated neighborhood incident, I went over to a next door neighbor’s house,
because the young girl home was screaming that Nicholas Mattiello and several other boys were trying to
push in the front door of the house. I hollered at the boys, and was furiously waving my arms, at which
time I may have accidentally come in contact with Nicholas Mattiello,” said Joe Trillo.

“According to a Cranston police report, Mattiello’s father went to the police two days after the incident to
report it, which would indicate he did not find it to be serious. At the time, our families were feuding over
the fact that the two Mattiello boys were riding dirt bikes all around the neighborhood, and I feel this was
his way of trying to get back at me,” he added.

“If I had seriously injured Nicholas Mattiello or ever threatened bodily harm, his father or mother would
have taken him to the police department immediately.”

“Waiting two days to file a police report over something Nicholas Mattiello’s father claimed was so
serious that he wanted to kill me, doesn’t add up. This gives everyone involved a chance to create a
fictitious narrative, including fabricating outrageous witness statements, including from children, which is
what Mattiello’s father did,” Trillo said.

“I don’t agree with this police report, because it was one-sided. The police officer who initially
responded to the incident, did not want to do anything, other than take a report. The bottom line is, I was
found not guilty. Since when does not guilty count for nothing.”

“In the police report, the responding officer, in his own words, described young Nicholas Mattiello as an
ill-mannered, undisciplined little brat who had been a source of aggravation to other residents of the area,
as well as to school authorities, and that although it was against his better judgement, he felt he had no
other choice but to charge me with a misdemeanor.”

“This misdemeanor case went to trial in the 1970s, I was found not guilty, and our families eventually
mended the relationship,” he concluded.