(NEW YORK) — Former Marion, Kansas Police Chief Gideon Cody has been charged over his handling of an investigation that involved raiding the offices of a local newspaper and the home of its publishers, court records showed.
Cody was charged with one count of interfering with a judicial process, a felony.
Special Prosecutor Barry Wilkerson, who was assigned to look into the case, charged Cody, saying in the court filing that Cody “induced a witness to withhold information.”
Earlier this month, Wilkerson, the Riley County, Kansas, District Attorney and the DA of Sedgewick County, Marc Bennett, concluded in a 124-page report that the paper’s staff committed no crimes before local police raided the Marion County Record offices in August of 2023.
The police raid last year was prompted by a complaint from a prominent local business owner and critic of the newspaper, who accused two city council members at a public meeting of illegally disseminating confidential information about her driving record.
This kicked off an investigation from then-Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody about whether the reporter stole the records and also led to a search of the publisher Eric Meyer and his 98-year-old mother Joan Meyer’s house.
Eric Meyer, the publisher of the Marion County Record, said at the time that his newspaper was tipped off about the business owner’s driving record but never published a story about it.
Joan Meyer died days after the raid on her home.
Seth Stern, the director of Advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, called the raid “criminal” and said he “welcomes” the news of charges against Cody.
The two prosecutors found the reporter did not commit any crimes in doing her due diligence in accessing driving records.
The special prosecutors took issue with the application of search warrants.
“The specter of ulterior motives, personal animus and conclusions based not on investigation but rather on assumptions permeates much of this case,” the prosecutors wrote in the report. “These factors arguably colored the perceptions of Marion law enforcement and civilian actors alike.”
In a statement to ABC News last August, Cody said there were exceptions to the federal law limiting federal, state and local law enforcement’s ability to conduct newsroom searches, specifically noting, “When there is reason to believe the journalist is taking part in the underlying wrongdoing.”
Eric Meyer denied his staff was involved in any wrongdoing and that his reporters even notified the Marion Police Department of the tip the newspaper got on the local business owner, but the agency never responded.
Prosecutors Wilkerson and Bennett concluded in their 2024 report that once a Marion officer spoke with a Kansas Dept. of Revenue representative and found no crime, the case should have been closed.
“Journalists, attorneys, mental health professional and members of the clergy each have long-recognized privileges in our law rooted in the freedom of religion, freedom of the press and right to legal representation. When a member of one of these professions becomes a suspect in a crime, law enforcement has the ability to investigate. However, in these situations, it is incumbent on law enforcement to take precautions to limit the scope of their investigation. Before a search warrant is sought for a press room, a law office church or the office of a mental health professional, inquisition subpoenas or other available forms of investigation should be utilized. Search warrants for law offices, press rooms and churches should be sought only in extraordinary circumstances and with extreme caution,” they wrote in the report.
A legal representative for Cody was not listed on the court filing. The former police chief hasn’t spoken out about the case and resigned in October, not long after the August 2023 raid.
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