Criminal charges will be filed against the local Kansas police chief who last year led a much-condemned raid on the Marion County Record newspaper, special prosecutors in the case announced Monday.
The final report on the raid from special prosecutors Marc Bennett and Barry Wilkerson said that they plan to charge former Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody with obstruction of the judicial process. If convicted, Cody faces between seven and 23 months in prison.
Last August, Cody ordered Marion officers to raid the local newsroom, an act widely condemned by press freedom groups and government officials as a clear violation of the First Amendment.
Officers also raided the home of Marion County Record publisher Eric Meyer and his mother, Joan, and the home of then-City Council member Ruth Herbel, who had been critical of the mayor.
Joan Meyer, 98, died one day after the raid. Her son Eric blamed her death on the stress caused by the raid.
The investigation, which was released Monday, was initially launched by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation before being turned over to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation in November 2023. Bennett and Wilkerson agreed to serve as special prosecutors at the request of the elected Marion County attorney Joel Ensey.
The newspaper’s lawyer, Bernie Rhodes, said the final report released on Monday confirmed what the Record had always known.
“We believed all along that fair-minded law enforcement officers would conclude that no one at the Marion County Record committed a crime, and they have done that,” Rhodes told VOA. “Beyond that, that fair-minded law enforcement officers would also determine that Gideon Cody did likely commit a crime. So, it’s exactly what we’ve been saying from day one.”
The newspaper’s own lawsuit over the raid is ongoing, Rhodes added.
Eric Meyer, the newspaper’s owner and publisher, also welcomed the news that the newspaper has “finally, officially been vindicated.” Meyer added he was glad that Cody would be held accountable, but said he hopes more will be done to remedy the entire situation.
“It’s a good first step, but it’s hardly closure,” Meyer told VOA.
At the time of the incident, Cody said the raid was over an identity theft complaint that a local restaurant owner had filed. But during the raid itself, Cody rifled through records about himself, body camera footage showed.
Katherine Jacobsen, the U.S. and Canada program coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists, welcomed the news that Cody is expected to be charged.
“It’s heartening to see that officials are taking this seriously. And I think part of taking it seriously is making sure that people are held responsible,” Jacobsen said. “It sends a message that this kind of behavior from law enforcement will not be tolerated and is unacceptable.”
The Marion Police Department declined to comment for this story.
VOA did not immediately receive a reply to a voicemail left at a possible cellphone number for Cody. VOA also did not immediately receive a reply to an email sent to a possible email address for Cody. It was not immediately clear who might be representing him in the potential criminal case.
The raid on the Record took place almost one year ago, on Aug. 11, 2023. At the time, VOA reported extensively on the trauma the raid wrought on the newspaper’s staff.
The recently released report suggested that Marion police, led by then-Chief Cody, conducted a poor investigation that led them to “reach erroneous conclusions” that Meyer and reporter Phyllis Zorn had committed identity theft or other computer crimes.
Cody resigned in October 2023, about one week after the city council announced during a meeting that he had been suspended and weeks after officers were forced to return materials seized in the raid.
Some local residents also said they were happy about the news that Cody would be charged for his role in the raid.
“Joan Meyer deserves this day,” town resident Darvin Markley told VOA. “It’s a good day in Kansas. Maybe democracy is going to prevail.”
Some information in this report came from The Associated Press.
