A former Muncie police officer, Corey Posey, has been acquitted by a federal jury on charges of allegedly trying to cover up another officer’s use of excessive force. This verdict marked the end of Posey’s third trial in this case. The jury’s decision was announced on Wednesday, as reported by the Indianapolis Star. Prosecutors had claimed that Posey falsified a report detailing an incident from August 9, 2018, where another officer, Chase Winkle, was accused of using unnecessary force on an individual under arrest.
Posey was indicted by a federal grand jury in 2021 and faced two previous trials in 2023, both ending in mistrials due to a lack of unanimous agreement among jurors. Initially, Posey had agreed to plead guilty to obstruction of justice in October, which would have resulted in one year of probation and three months of home detention. However, U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt rejected this plea deal in January, expressing concerns about the proposed leniency of the sentence compared to similar cases.
As a response to the rejected plea agreement, Posey decided to not plead guilty and instead entered a not guilty plea. Despite resigning from the police department when the initial plea agreement was made, Posey maintained his innocence throughout the legal proceedings. After being acquitted, Posey expressed gratitude towards his supporters and stated his anticipation for a new phase of peace for himself and his children.
In a separate development related to the case, Chase Winkle, the officer involved in the excessive force incident, pleaded guilty in 2023 to multiple charges linked to assaults on individuals under arrest in 2018 and 2019. Winkle received a 10-year federal prison sentence for his actions. Moreover, three other former officers from the Muncie police department were also implicated in either acts of brutality or covering up such incidents, and they received prison terms ranging from six to 19 months.
During the legal proceedings, Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Blackett backed Posey’s plea deal by stating that Posey, being a probationary officer under Winkle’s training at the time of the alleged offense, did not engage in using excessive force. Consequently, Blackett argued that Posey did not warrant a prison sentence.