A stack of Marion County Records sits behind the newspaper building, waiting to be broken up, sorted and distributed on August 16, 2023 in Marion, Kansas. A former police chief in the Midlands has been charged over his conduct following a raid on his town’s newspaper last year, in which staff committed no crime.
John Hanna/AP
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John Hanna/AP
TOPEKA, Kan. — Two special prosecutors said Monday they plan to charge a former police chief in central Kansas with obstruction of justice for his actions following a police raid on a local weekly newspaper last year.
Prosecutors Marc Bennett and Barry Wilkerson concluded in a 124-page report that former Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody was involved in the raid. Marion County Record staff were cleared of any crimes before the Marion County Record Company’s offices and publisher’s residence were stolen. They said the police warrant signed by the judge that allowed the search contained inaccurate information stemming from “inadequate investigation” and that the search was not legally justified.
Body camera footage from a police raid on publisher Eric Meyer’s home in 2023 shows his 98-year-old mother, Joan Meyer, visibly upset and telling police: “Get out of here House!” She was a co-owner of the paper and died of a heart attack the next afternoon while living with her son.
Prosecutors found no evidence officers “believed they posed a threat to Mrs. Meyer’s life,” but they claimed Cody obstructed the official course of justice in the weeks after the raid. It was unclear whether officials planned to do so and charge him with a felony or misdemeanor, and as of Monday, no criminal charges had been filed.
“Familiarity with the town explains, but does not excuse, the inadequate investigation that led to the search warrant application in this case,” prosecutors said in the report.
Bennett is the district attorney in Sedgwick County, home to Wichita, the state’s largest city. Wilkerson is the chief prosecutor in Riley County in northeastern Kansas. The state attorney general appointed them after the Marion County prosecutor, who himself faced questions about the search warrant, said there was a conflict.
The raid sparked a national debate over press freedom, with a focus on the town of Marion. .
Seth Stern, director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, said in a statement that Cody should face charges in addition to obstruction of justice.
“The assault itself is a crime,” he said. “Cody wasn’t the only one at fault.”
Meyer said in an interview that he was grateful prosecutors found the newspaper’s staff not guilty of a crime, although he questioned why it took them a full year. He also expressed disappointment that Cody is the only officer expected to face criminal prosecution.
“I think what’s going on here is he’s being used as a scapegoat,” Meyer said.
Meyer, the newspaper’s parent company, and three current or former employees have filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Marion and current and former local officials, including Cody.
A voicemail seeking comment was left on a cell phone number believed to belong to Cody. It was unclear who might represent him in the potential criminal case, and his attorneys in multiple federal lawsuits over the raid did not return phone messages.
The search warrant authorizing the police raid charged Meyer and reporter Phyllis Zorn with identity theft and other computer crimes for obtaining the driving record of a local business owner who was applying for a liquor license. Zorn verified the record through an online status database. Prosecutors said Cody appeared to mistakenly believe Zorn had to impersonate a business owner to gain access.
The business owner provided a written statement to police two days before the raid, but prosecutors said two pages were missing from the document handed over to investigators in September 2023.
The prosecutor’s report also noted text messages between Cody and the business owner after the raid. The business owner said Cody asked her to delete text messages between them out of concern people would get the wrong idea about their relationship, which she said was professional and platonic.
Information about the text messages will be included in a criminal indictment, the report said.
