MUNCIE, Ind. – A former Muncie officer accused of falsifying a police report pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday.
Corey Posey entered his plea for obstruction of justice. Federal Judge Tanya Walton Pratt didn’t immediately accept his plea and took it under advisement. If she ends up approving it, she would sentence Posey on Jan. 31, 2024.
Posey is the final officer involved in a scandal that has hung over the Muncie Police Department for a half-decade, with former Muncie police officer Chase Winkle at the center of it.
On Aug. 9, 2018, Winkle and Posey responded to a reported attempted home break-in. They later located a suspect and began to take him into custody.
Court documents indicated the suspect initially cooperated. However, he later directed inappropriate remarks at Posey. In response, Winkle dropped his knee on the back of the suspect’s head and neck. The individual later went to a hospital with a fractured jaw, broken nose and other injuries.
Posey later reviewed body camera footage of the incident and omitted some details about how the suspect was injured, federal prosecutors said. The language used in his report didn’t fully detail the extent of Winkle’s actions.
He was accused of filing an “intentionally false and misleading” report, failing to note that Winkle’s actions were unreasonable and constituted an unjustified use of force.
Posey has been on trial twice in the case; both ended in mistrials because jurors couldn’t reach a unanimous decision. The plea deal, if accepted, would avert a third federal trial.
Posey resigned from the Muncie Police Department in October. The plea deal calls for a year of probation and three months of home detention. Posey, who was arrested in a separate drunk-driving case in July, would have to participate in alcohol and mental health treatment programs.
He would also be barred from applying for future jobs as a law enforcement officer.
Winkle, the son of Muncie’s former police chief, was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison in August after pleading guilty to 11 counts related to excessive use of force and obstruction of justice.
Three other former officers were also convicted in the case.
