"A federal grand jury in Indianapolis, Indiana, returned a 17-count superseding indictment charging three officers and one sergeant of the Muncie Police Department with excessive force and obstruction," the Justice Department said in a statement on Wednesday.
Officer Corey Posey was charged on Wednesday for aiding in the cover up of the excessive use of force by his colleagues Joseph Winkle, Jeremy Gibson and Joseph Krejsa, the statement said.
Winkle, son of the Muncie Police Department’s former chief, was charged with 11 felony offenses - the most of any of the officers, the statement said.
The charges included five counts of depriving arrestees of their right to be free from excessive force and six counts of writing false reports about the excessive use of force, the statement said.
Gibson was similarly charged with two counts of depriving arrestees of their right to be free from excessive force, while Posey and Krejsa were charged with one and two counts of writing false reports, respectively, the statement also said.
The officers facing deprivation-of-rights charges could face up to ten years in prison while those charged with writing false reports could face up to 20 years, the statement added.
The incident was investigated by the FBI and is being jointly prosecuted by the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and the Assistant US Attorney of the Southern District of Indiana, according to the statement.
