Muncie officer agrees to abstain from alcohol while awaiting trial
MUNCIE, Ind. — A Muncie police officer has agreed to abstain from drinking alcoholic beverages while awaiting trial on an obstruction-of-justice charge.
Corey Posey is set to stand trial Sept. 11 in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis. He is accused of filing a false police report in 2018 after Chase Winkle, at the time a colleague on the Muncie Police Department, physically assaulted an arrestee.
On July 7, the 31-year-old Posey was arrested — and later charged in a Howard County court with a misdemeanor count of driving while intoxicated — after he was involved in a rear-end collision on U.S. 31 in Kokomo.
The arrest prompted federal prosecutors to file a motion that could have resulted in Posey being placed in federal custody to await his September trial.
However, the issue was apparently resolved on Tuesday when the Muncie officer signed a revised order setting the conditions of his pre-trial release.
Unlike the release order Posey signed in May 2021 following his indictment, Tuesday's order specifies Posey is not to "use alcohol... at all."
Posey first stood trial on the federal count of obstruction of justice in June, but a mistrial was declared when jurors were unable to agree on a verdict.
His Howard County arrest prompted a five-day suspension, the maximum penalty Muncie Police Chief Nate Sloan could impose, with the matter forward to the Muncie Police Merit Commission for consideration of further discipline.
In the federal case, Chase Winkle in December pleaded guilty to five counts of depriving arrestees of their constitutional rights by physically abusing them, and six counts of obstruction of justice.
He is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 22 by U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Walton Pratt.
Last week another ex-colleague of Winkle, former city officer Dalton Kurtz, received a six-month sentence after pleading guilty to filing a false report about Winke's physical abuse of an arrestee.
In June, Joseph Krejsa — a Muncie police sergeant who retired after being implicated in the Winkle investigation — was sentenced to 19 months in federal prison, also for filing a false police report about Winkle's abuse of an arrestee.
Douglas Walker is a news reporter for The Star Press. Contact him at 765-213-5851 or at dwalker@muncie.gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Muncie Star Press: Muncie officer agrees to abstain from alcohol while awaiting trial
