MUNCIE, Ind. — A former Muncie police sergeant pleaded guilty Tuesday to obstruction of justice for writing a false report to cover up the excessive use of force by other Muncie officers under his command, federal prosecutors said.
Joseph Kresja admitted the charge during a change-of-plea hearing. He was scheduled to go to trial Jan. 17. As part of a plea agreement, prosecutors dismissed a second obstruction of justice charge.
Krejsa, 52, faces up to 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release. He is due to be sentenced June 27.
According to court documents and statements made during the hearing, Kresja on Aug. 9, 2018, responded to the scene of an arrest. Before he arrived on the scene, other Muncie officers under his supervision, including former officer Chase Winkle, had used excessive force against the person being arrested.
Documents say Winkle and former officer Corey Posey had approached a suspect in an alleyway and told him to put his hands on his head and to get to the ground. The suspect complied. While on the ground, the suspect insulted the officers.
In response, Winkle, using his knee, dripped his body down on the suspect's neck and head and then tased him before Posey hit the man twice in the face with his knee, prosecutors said. Then another officer, Jeremy Gibson, arrived and kneed the suspect twice in his face.
The incident caused the man to suffer serious bodily injury, including multiple facial fractures that required surgery.
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The day after the arrest, Krejsa conducted a supervisory review of the incident during which he said he had watched the videos of the incident and deemed the use of force justified.
Several days later, the captain of the department's patrol division tasked Krejsa with conducting a more in-depth review of the officers' use of force. The assignment was separate from the typical shift sergeant review.
For this separate review, prosecutors said Krejsa watched the bodycam video, saw the officers' use of excessive force and then wrote a lengthy report for the police department's official records that had several false statements.
Prosecutors said Krejsa implied that the officers' use of force was justified to ensure officer safety. He also falsely claimed that officers used low levels of force when the incident started and only escalated to a higher level of force when the previous option wasn't working.
He also wrote that Winkle "kneeled" on the suspect's left shoulder and upper body when he saw the footage of Winkle using his knee to hit the suspect's head and neck area. And, prosecutors say, Krejsa wrote that Winkle's use of force only caused cuts to the suspect's face, when in fact it caused the suspect serious bodily harm.
As part of his plea, Krejsa admitted that he knew, when he wrote the false report, that the inaccuracies and omissions in his report were intended to influence any potential investigation into the incident.
Krejsa is the fourth Muncie Police Department official to plead guilty in connection with this investigation, prosecutors said.