Jury acquits former Indiana police officer of attempting to cover up excessive use of force by another officer

A federal jury has acquitted a former Muncie police officer accused of trying to cover up another officer’s excessive use of force, ending his third trial in the case.

The jury announced its verdict in the Corey Posey case on Wednesday, the Indianapolis Star reported. Prosecutors accused him of falsifying a report about the events of August 9, 2018, when former police officer Chase Winkle beat an arrestee.

A federal grand jury indicted Posey in 2021. He was tried twice in 2023, but each time jurors failed to reach a unanimous verdict, resulting in mistrials.

Last October, he agreed to plead guilty to one count of obstruction of justice. The deal included one year of probation and three months of house arrest.

But U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt rejected the agreement in January, saying she had reviewed similar cases and found there was a discrepancy between the sentences for the defendants in those cases and Posey’s proposed sentence.

She told Posey that if he pleaded guilty she would sentence him to ten months in prison, but Posey refused and pleaded not guilty.

Posey resigned from his police duties when he signed the proposed settlement. He issued a statement on Wednesday thanking his supporters and saying he looked forward to a “new chapter of peace for me and my children now that I have finally been acquitted of something I should never have been charged with,” the Star reported.

Winkle pleaded guilty in 2023 to several counts stemming from attacks on arrestees in 2018 and 2019 and was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison. Three other former Muncie officers were also accused of brutality or attempting to cover it up and received prison sentences ranging from six to 19 months.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Blackett wrote in a memo supporting Posey’s plea deal that Posey did not deserve prison time because he never used excessive force and was still training to be a probationary police officer under Winkle at the time of the crime he was charged with.

Winkle pleaded guilty in 2023 to 11 counts related to attacks on detainees in 2018 and 2019 and was sentenced to 10 years in a federal prison.