Two former Muncie police officers have been sentenced to federal prison after pleading guilty to excessive force charges.
Chase Winkle
Chase Winkle has been handed a sentence of 10 years in prison. WRTV reports that Winkle was immediately taken into custody of the US Marshals after the hearing.
Of the five officers charged after an FBI investigation looking at several arrests in 2018 and 2019, Winkle faced the most charges. He pleaded guilty to 11 of them last December.
According to the FBI investigation, Winkle kicked, punched, used knee-strikes and a taser on several arrestees without justification. One person was “knocked unconscious.”
The incidents occurred while Winkle’s father, Joe Winkle, was Muncie’s police chief. Chase Winkle had also served at times as the department’s public information officer.
Winkle was fired from the Muncie Police Department late last year, after agreeing to plead guilty to the charges. He’d been on unpaid suspension for nearly two years before that.
When Winkle agreed to plead guilty and was fired by the department, current Chief Nathan Sloan told media in a statement, “These actions do not reflect what the Muncie Police Department stands for or should have stood for at the time of occurrence.”
Jeremy Gibson
Former officer Jeremy Gibson was also sentenced Wednesday.
Gibson pleaded guilty in May 2022 to two charges related to excessive force and covering up those actions. He has been sentenced to 14 months in prison. As WRTV reports, Gibson won’t begin his sentence until next January, so he can see the birth of his fourth child.
Gibson had faced up to 30 years in prison. But his plea agreement included cooperating with federal prosecutors to testify against the other officers.
He has also been ordered to pay restitution to the victim of a 2018 traffic stop. In a separate civil lawsuit, Manny Montero said his arrest by Gibson and Winkle for a missing headlight left him with facial fractures and broken ribs.
Gibson’s father and grandfather were both Muncie police officers.
Both Winkle and Gibson will also have two years of supervised release after serving their sentences.
Other Former Officers
Three other former MPD employees were charged in the same investigation, most for writing false reports to cover up Winkle’s actions. In March of 2020, officers Chase Winkle and Jeremy Gibson and Sergeant Joseph Krejsa were indicted on 12 total federal counts. In April 2021, Officer Corey Posey wasadded to the indictment and 17 more charges were added in total.
Joseph Krejsa and Dalton Kurtz are serving federal sentences.
Corey Posey will go to trial for a second time in September, after the first ended in a mistrial.