The two Des Moines police officers accused of planting drug evidence on a suspect did so after authorities had obtained a separate arrest warrant, Polk County Attorney John Sarcone said. That means the suspect would have been taken into custody regardless of the officers' actions, although he or she could have been subject to a more severe punishment.

Sarcone and Des Moines police continue to decline to identify the suspect or share more details about the January 2015 case that led earlier this month to the resignations of Senior Police Officers Joshua Judge, 30, and Tyson Teut, 30.

"There was something else aside from the (drug) possession," Sarcone said last week. Though the suspect faced other charges, it is possible that the addition of a drug possession charge could led to a harsher sentence.

Police have said that an internal investigation that began Dec. 2 continues. Parizek said on Dec. 6, the day after the officers resigned, that the department planned to thoroughly review every case Judge and Teut had worked on to make sure there was no other possible wrongdoing. The officers worked on hundreds of cases since starting with the department in August 2013, he said.

The former officers have not been criminally charged.

No other officers have been publicly accused of wrongdoing in connection with the case involving Judge and Teut. Parizek has characterized the case as an isolated incident that is not representative of the entire police department.