The police chief who led a heavily criticized raid on a small Kansas newspaper that left its 98-year-old owner dead the following day has been suspended.
Marion Mayor Dave Mayfield said he suspended Chief Gideon Cody on Thursday, but declined to discuss his decision further or say whether Cody is still being paid.
The Aug. 11 raids on the Marion County Record Office and the homes of his publisher and a city council member drew sharp criticism.
Video of the raid on publisher Eric Meyer’s home shows how distraught his 98-year-old mother was as officers searched her belongings.
Cody, seen here in plain clothes, became chief of the Marion County Police Department in May after retiring from the Kansas City Police Department in Missouri. He’s being sued by the reporter whose phone he stole
During the filmed ordeal of the August Marion County Record raid, police seized computers, personal cell phones and a router
Meyer said he believes grief and stress contributed to Joan Meyer’s death a day later.
She sobbed, couldn’t eat and died mid-sentence, just 12 hours after the ordeal.
Cody’s suspension represents an about-face for the mayor, who previously said he would await the results of a State Police investigation before taking action.
Marion Mayor Dave Mayfield said he suspended Chief Gideon Cody on Thursday
Cody became chief of the Marion County Police Department in late April after leaving the Kansas City police department amid allegations of sexual misconduct.
The incident also brought Marion to the forefront of a debate over the press protections provided by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Vice Mayor Ruth Herbel, whose home was also searched Aug. 11, praised Cody’s suspension as “the best thing to happen to Marion right now” as the central Kansas city of about 1,900 residents struggles to move forward in the national spotlight.
“We can’t keep our heads down until it goes away, because it won’t go away until we do something about it,” Herbel said.
Cody has said little publicly since the raids, other than posting a defense of his views on the police Facebook page.
When confronted by reporters, Cody refused to answer questions and instead said, “Do you realize how angry the KBI (Kansas Bureau of Investigations) will be at me if I talk about their case now?”
In court documents he filed to obtain the search warrants, he argued that he had probable cause to believe that the newspaper and Herbel, whose home was also searched, had violated state laws against identity theft and computer crimes.
The raids came after a local restaurant owner accused the newspaper of illegally accessing information about her.
The paper’s co-owner, Joan Meyer, 98, was dismayed by the police raid on her newspaper and died “mid-sentence” half a day after the still-unsolved operation
In a video published by the Marion County Record, Meyer rolls her walker directly toward a police officer and tells him to wait outside
She even tries to stop the men and refuses to answer their questions. When asked how many computers she has, she replies, “I won’t tell you.”
A spokesman for the agency that keeps those records said a reporter’s online search of the newspaper was likely legal, although the reporter needed personal information about the restaurant owner provided by a tipster to look up her driving record.
The newspaper’s editor, Eric Meyer, said the allegations of identity theft were simply a convenient excuse for the search after his reporters allegedly sought background information on Cody, who was appointed this summer.
Legal experts believe the raid on the newspaper violated a federal privacy law or a state law that prevents journalists from identifying sources or turning over unpublished material to law enforcement.
Another reporter filed a federal lawsuit last month against the police chief over the raid.
After the scandal and federal lawsuit, the small newspaper said it was flooded with one-year subscriptions.
Earlier this month, Mayor Mayfield told The Wichita Eagle, “I mean, everyone looks at Marion now like we’re a bunch of rednecks.”
“And the police just did what the judge told them to do.”
Eric Meyer, editor of The Marion County Record, claims the August search was motivated by a reporter’s investigation into the chief’s police background
A stack of the Marion County Record sits in the back of the newspaper building, waiting to be unbundled, sorted and distributed after the August raid
The offices of the Marion County Record weekly newspaper are located across from the Marion County, Kansas Courthouse
The small-town newspaper said it has been bombarded with subscription orders since the controversy began
A tribute to the late Marion County Record co-owner Joan Meyer sits outside the newspaper’s office
When questioned by the prosecutor who decided to withdraw the search warrants five days after her execution, he added: “Why didn’t he (Ensey) do that in the first place?”
He also said he was “perplexed” that Cody had received criticism.
The Kansas Bureau of Investigations took over the investigation a few days after the newspaper’s computers and publishing equipment were seized because of suspicions that the looting had taken place without proper justification from police.
They determined that there wasn’t actually enough evidence to support the tirade against the local newspaper – and canceled the arrest warrant.