Stoping my own face. >> Please, please. I'm sorry. Please. >> I'm sorry. >> I'm sorry. You got me. >> I can't breathe. >> I CAN'T BREATHE. >> OKAY, GUYS. MANNY. >> Early morning, May 13th, 2018. A Muny resident named Manny Montero gets pulled over for an alleged missing headlight. [music] His brother's in the passenger seat, and both of them start recording. Officer Winkle arrives on scene as backup. >> Take your seatelt off, then come out of the car. >> You won't even let me move my hand. >> Take your seatelt off. Come out. >> Take your seatelt off and get the hands up at me, man. You've >> been running your mouth the whole time. >> Beat my now. for talking. for talking. >> Put your hands on top of your head. >> I got rights, man. I got rights, dude. >> And within seconds, this stops being a traffic stop over a headlight and turns into something else entirely. >> I got rights, man. >> DAD AND I GOT RIGHTS. >> Like he told you to. >> I got rights, man. >> Put your hands on top of your head. Quit moving them. >> Quit talking. Quit talking. >> Hey, I'm turning. >> WOW. GIVE YOUR MAN. HEY Y'ALL. [ __ ] GET IN THERE. PUT THE DOG UP. [ __ ] get in there. >> I'm not I'm not moving, buddy. >> All right, man. All right. >> Look. Look. >> I ain't moving. >> Put it behind YOUR BACK. PUT YOUR HAND BEHIND NOW. >> I got one. HANDS BEHIND, BRO. JUST do what they say. OKAY. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. >> Radio. >> I'm so sorry. >> Put your other hand back here. >> I am sir. You got me. >> You'reing stupid. Put your hand behind your back. >> Put the mother. >> PLEASE. PLEASE BE YOUR BACK. >> PLEASE. PLEASE. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You got me. He's got >> I can't breathe. >> I can't breathe. >> Officers searched his vehicle afterward. They found nothing, but they charged him with resisting arrest anyway. He was sent to the hospital with facial fractures and broken ribs that required surgery. Then, according to their own body cameras, they laughed about it. [laughter] >> We have traffic violation. And then >> he is now in cuffs. >> I got to see that video. >> One point. We all had to take a breather cuz this kid was like we're just laying on him. I brought get that mother arm. >> I brought this out and then I was going to town and he still wasn't. I brought >> And somehow after all of that, Manny was the one facing charges. Those charges were eventually dropped completely. But what happened to Manny wasn't an isolated incident. Less than a month later, Officer Winkl was involved in another one. This time, the man on the other end of it was Jesse Vernon. >> [screaming] >> I miss you. >> Vernon was stopped because officers believed he had thrown a bag containing drugs. During that stop, you just watched him get tased and beaten badly enough to break his collar bone. an injury that took multiple surgeries to repair. And in the end, every charge against Vernon was dropped. Prosecutors couldn't prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Vernon was even the person who threw the bag in the first place. Then just two months later, it happened again. >> Hey, put your hands up. Put your hands up. Put them on your head. Put your hands on your head. >> I'M LOOKING FOR MY KIDS, MAN. >> PUT YOUR hands Get down. Get down. >> I ain't done anything. >> I told you THEY'RE COMING UP. HEY. >> OKAY. HEY, >> GIVE ME A I'M NOT EVEN FIGHTING YOU. >> My kid. [screaming] >> This is Lonnie Ganham. Lonnie was encountered by officers responding to a reported burglary on West Adam Street. But watch what happens once they approach him. Not resistance, not a weapon, but a simple comment. >> OH MY GOD. CRAP. GIVE ME YOUR HAND. >> GIVE ME YOUR HANDS. GIVE ME YOUR HAND. >> I didn't do anything. >> Stop fighting. >> I CUT MY OWN FACE. >> Give me your hands. GIVE ME YOUR HANDS. >> ALL RIGHT. TAKE >> STOP FIGHTING. STOP FIGHTING. GET OUT OF YOUR [ __ ] OKAY, GUYS. Get this place. >> That was officer Winkle knee dropping directly onto Lonie's neck, driving his face against the gravel before other officers tased him repeatedly on his spine and beat him excessively. And what had Lonnie done? He said, "I didn't do anything." While putting his hands behind his back and going to the ground exactly as he was told. Lonnie would later need facial reconstruction surgery. And by now, you may have noticed something else. The same officers keep showing up. Because this wasn't one officer acting alone. Every one of these incidents had other officers standing right there with him. And there's a reason Posy's name matters more than it might seem. He was a rookie and Officer Winkl was the one training him and grading him. But that relationship becomes even more troubling when you realize who was sitting at the very top of the department. Officer Chase Winkle's father was the chief of police, Joe Winkle. If you're finding this as unbelievable as we did putting it together, hit subscribe now because what you've seen so far is only part of how deep this actually goes. Because this wasn't just about what Chase Winkle was doing. There were already signs that excessive force was becoming a much bigger problem inside the department. Take Officer Alex Moore. In another 2018 arrest, body camera footage captured Moore repeatedly punching a man during an arrest. If you're finding this as unbelievable as we did putting it together, hit subscribe now because what you've seen so far is only part of how deep this actually goes. To understand how something like this went unchecked for so long, it helps to know what kind of town my Indiana actually is or was supposed to be. More than seven officials and contractors, including the mayor himself, were eventually indicted for corruption. And right in the middle of that investigation, a second, quieter one was developing. This one was about what officers were doing to the people they were supposed to be protecting. >> What's wrong with that? >> Because all this all the >> Put your phone down. >> Put your phone down real quick. Don't put your hands behind your back. Okay. Put your hands down. >> Don't pull away from me. Don't stay. >> Put your HANDS on your stomach. You hear me? GET ON YOUR STOMACH. YOU HEAR ME? You hear me? Get on your stomach. Get your ass right here. >> 2018 after Douglas arrest, former Chief Joe Winkl told WRTV that the punching was not excessive. >> I don't think so. I mean, I think those punches, as long as you're telling him what you want him to do and where they were thrown, >> you heard it directly from the chief. And as a result, Officer Moore was never disciplined. So, at the exact same time, the chief was defending these beatings publicly. The department's own use of force experts had already privately decided the opposite in writing. Five more victims exist that you haven't seen. One man, kicked in the head while surrendering with his hands open, was knocked unconscious in March 2018. before any of the incidents you've already watched. Two teenagers were hit in a single day two weeks after Manny's beating. None of that footage has ever been made public. That brings us to the final victim in this case. This happened nearly 6 months after the department's own instructors had already ruled this kind of force unjustified. Nothing internally had changed. It took someone outside the department to finally force the issue. Time around the tables return as the three Muny police officers walked into the federal courtroom with shackles on their feet, handcuffs, and body chains. The three are facing 12 counts of making a false report in deprivation of rights. Only our cameras were rolling as Chase Winkl walked out of federal court with his father, former police chief Joe Winkl. Chase, do you have anything to say about the charges that you're facing? >> I don't. >> Joe, do you have anything to say? >> No, thanks. Chase Winkl is the former public information officer of the Muny Police Department. He is now facing nine felony charges, including depriving four arrestes of their rights to be free of excessive force. >> Two weeks later, a federal judge sealed every piece of evidence in the case, including all the body camera footage from the public. More than a million dollars was quietly paid out, while the public still had no idea what any of it was actually for. Then in April 2021, a new indictment expanded the case further, adding charges for Manny's beating and pulling in a fourth officer, the same rookie who'd been trained by Winkl himself. And this is the first time anyone actually hears from Manny directly years after that night. >> They told me to step out. I stepped out and they just started just started pummeling me. You know what I mean? Pretty much just beat me down. >> What's going through your mind while this is happening? I just wanted to see my family. I just think about my son. I didn't understand why they were doing it at first and I didn't understand what's going on. Facial fractures, broken ribs. Um, yeah, I really can't see too well now. So, you know, I got they say I got PTSD. I mean, it's it's definitely changed my life. >> And by this point, the legal pressure on the officers involved is finally starting to catch up with them one by one. A former Muny police officer is now a convicted felon. Chase Winkl admitted in court today to using excessive force on suspects and writing false reports to cover it up. >> A federal judge accepted Chase Winkle's plea agreement today by pleading guilty to 11 counts and accepting responsibility. The former my police officer will likely get a more lenient sentence. >> 11 counts. Every single one of them. Winkl, the son of former police chief Joe Winkl, to a decade behind bars, followed by two years of supervised release. Winkl admitted to assaulting five suspects, including Manny Montero and Lonnie Ganham, which caused serious injuries to their heads and faces. Winkl also admitted to writing false reports to cover up his misconduct. And here's a detail that didn't get much attention at the time. Prosecutors themselves only asked for 8 years. The judge, he decided that wasn't nearly enough. Chase Winkl was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison, followed by two years of supervised release. And unlike the others, Winkl is still serving that sentence today. Officer Jeremy Gibson pleaded guilty to assaulting an arresty and then falsifying the report. He got 14 months in federal prison, followed by 2 years of supervised release, former Sergeant Joseph, 19 months in federal prison, 2 years of supervised release, and a $5,000 fine. Officer Dalton Curts admitted that he knew about Winkl's use of excessive force failed to report it and concealed what happened in his report. His punishment, 6 months in federal prison, 2 months of home detention, one year of supervised release, and a $1,000 fine. But Cory Posy's case went very differently. His first federal trial ended with a hung jury. So prosecutors tried him again, another hung jury. Posie eventually agreed to plead guilty under a deal that would have allowed him to avoid prison. But the judge rejected the deal as too lenient. Posie withdrew his plea and went to trial for a third time. And after two hung juries, a rejected plea deal, and a third trial, the jury came back not guilty. Posie became the only one of the five officers to walk away from the federal investigation without a conviction. Gibson, Craza, and Curts have since completed their federal prison sentences, but Chase Winkle remains in federal custody, serving the 10-year sentence handed down in 2023. Let us know in the comments who failed this town more, the officers using the force, the supervisors approving it, or the chief defending it. If you want more true stories that go beyond the headlines and uncover what really happened, subscribe to the channel and turn on notifications.