Alleged Scammer Beaten Up, Severely Injured Near Elmhurst Bar: Cops

ELMHURST, IL – A suspected scammer was attacked near an Elmhurst bar in the spring, with the man suffering severe injuries, police said.

Michael Mazzocchi, 25, of Bloomingdale, and Richard O'Brien, 29, of Naperville, both face two counts of felony aggravated battery, police said.

Mazzocchi's mother, Julie Mazzocchi, 54, of Bloomingdale, was later charged with impersonating an officer. She is alleged to have referred to the attack as a "good old-fashioned beatdown."

Patch obtained the police report through a public records request.

About 1 a.m. on May 24, three men attacked another man outside Lo Key cocktail bar, 115 W. Schiller Court, according to the report.

The report said the victim suffered 11 knocked-out teeth, a broken jaw and a broken bone near his eye.

The victim told police that he was waiting to pick up people at the bar, some of whom worked there, police said.

He said he was "1 billion percent" sure that the younger Mazzocchi took part in the attack. He said he had known him for about four years.

By the victim's account, Mazzocchi walked up to the man's pickup truck and said, "What's up, motherf-er?"

The man said he got out of his truck and said, "Are you really going to be that guy?"

Then he said three men attacked him.

Surveillance video showed the feet of several people, with the victim falling to the ground, according to the report. A man is seen punching the victim in a hammering motion, police said.

At Mazzocchi's home, officers found bloodstained gray sweatpants and shoes that he had been wearing the night of the attack, police said.

'Detective Arnell'

According to the report, the victim had a Cook County warrant for failing to appear in court for a charge of aggravated home repair fraud.

Police also found allegations of the victim's home repair fraud. For instance, a Lombard police report indicated the man had accepted $4,500 to repair a home's hail damage but did not complete the work, police said.

In a police interview, Julie Mazzocchi referred to the victim's alleged scamming history.

The detective stated in his report that "public opinion of a certain individual does not change the fact that they are a victim of a crime."

It was the video footage that Elmhurst police collected that got the mother involved in the case, according to the police report

Officers had obtained footage at businesses that Michael Mazzocchi and others had visited in the hours leading up to the incident.

The mother is alleged to have called one of the businesses and posed as Elmhurst "Detective Arnell, badge number 324."

She told the employee that she was on a recorded line and asked about "her officers" who spoke to the employee days earlier, police said.

When the employee did not cooperate, Mazzocchi threatened to bring her in for questioning, police said.

Mazzocchi later sent the recording to the employee's boss, trying to prove that the employee had lied, police said.

'Friends deal with broken bones'

It was Mazzocchi herself who was brought in for questioning.

Asked whether she called the business and posed as an officer, Mazzocchi was quoted as saying, "I sure the hell did."

She said a business owner should provide police with video, not an employee, according to the report. She called the employee in this case "a drunk," police said.

The mother, who admitted she had done wrong, was charged with three counts of impersonating an officer and one count of intimidation, police said.

Through a warrant, police gained access to Julie Mazzocchi's phone.

In private Facebook messages after the attack, Mazzocchi appears to acknowledge the crime that took place and that the victim owed money.

"You don't want blood on your hands, but to me, (the) way I grew (up), he needs a good old-fashioned beatdown," Mazzocchi was quoted as saying.

She also said her "friends deal with broken bones" and referred to the "people I know in Chicago," according to the report.

Police also said she wrote, "I will get arrested for orchestrating it. And if he dies in the process, I will lose my freedom. He's not worth anyone's freedom."

She also vaguely referred to winning a civil suit for $168,500, according to the report.

'Notoriously known scammer'

During the investigation, police interviewed a 20-year-old man who was thought to have been involved in the attack.

In an interview, he was quoted as calling the victim a "scumbag" and a "notoriously known scammer."

He said he did not know what happened the night of the incident but smiled when talking about the victim being injured, police said.

He said he was at another place that same night and that video could prove it, but police said they could not obtain the footage.

An officer asked the man whether the victim was supposed to do work at the man's mother's house.

The man responded, "We fixed that," but he declined to say how, police said.

He was charged with driving an uninsured car, possessing a fictitious driver's license and having improper tinting on his car.

Police said Monday they did not anticipate any more charges being filed in the attack itself.