A former Kansas police chief linked to the Aug. 11, 2023, raid of a local newspaper was formally charged with one count of interference with the judicial process.
Gideon Cody, who resigned from the Marion Police Department less than two months after the raid, is accused of inducing a witness to withhold information in a felony case, according to a complaint filed Monday.
The charge comes a year after the offices of the Marion County Record were searched in a raid that also targeted the homes of its publisher and co-owner Eric Meyer and City Council member Ruth Herbel.
Meyer's 98-year-old mother Joan Meyer, also a co-owner of the newspaper, lived with him and was home at the time of the raid. She collapsed and died the day after the raid, and Meyer blamed her death on the stress of the raid.
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Cody used his five-member force and help from Marion County sheriff’s deputies to launch warrant-based searches based on his belief that one of the Record's reporters committed identity theft by accessing the driver records of a restaurant owner, according to court documents previously released by the paper’s attorney.
The paper said that the raid was unjustified and that its reporter, Phyllis Zorn, found restaurant owner Kari Newell’s driver’s record by routinely using the state Revenue Department’s online search engine.
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The newspaper began looking into Newell’s driver's history after it received a tip that she was convicted of a DUI in 2008. The paper said it wanted to know whether the conviction would prevent her from having a liquor license.
Herbel had received the same tip about Newell’s DUI.
Marion County Attorney Joel Ensey, however, withdrew the search warrants after determining that "insufficient evidence exists to establish a legally sufficient nexus between this alleged crime and the places searched and the items seized." He told law enforcement to immediately return any seized items.
Eric Meyer had said that computers, his cellphone, and the home's internet router were taken during the raid. Herbel said her computer and phone were taken.
Two special prosecutors in the case had announced their plans last week to charge Cody. Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett and Riley County Attorney Barry Wilkerson said in a 124-page report that the newspaper's staff had committed no crimes.
Since the raid, several lawsuits have been filed against Cody, the city, its former mayor and other government officials.
Cody could not be reached at phone numbers listed for him on Tuesday.
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