On Monday, two special prosecutors announced that they would charge a former Kansas police chief with criminal obstruction of justice for ordering warrant searches of a publisher and his newsroom in order to obtain public information.
The special prosecutors, Riley County Attorney Barry Wilkerson and Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett, say in a 124-page report that they did not discover any evidence of criminal activity on the part of the staff of the Marion County Record, the newspaper that was seized.
Prosecutors had not yet brought any criminal charges against former Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody as of Monday. It wasn’t immediately apparent if Cody would be the target of a felony or minor charge.
The Colorado Bureau of Investigation, which intervened at the Kansas Bureau of Investigation’s request, is collaborating with the special prosecutors.
According to the article, “the findings will be incorporated into charges which will be sought in Marion County District Court.” Cody was suspended by Marion Mayor David Mayfield before he resigned.
Ruth Herbel, a member of the City Council, and publisher Eric Meyer’s residences were also subject to warrant-based searches by Cody, who utilized his five-person force with the assistance of Marion County sheriff’s officers.
The report claimed that when Marion police, then under the direction of Cody, accessed driving records for nearby restaurateur Kari Newell, they conducted a subpar investigation and “reach erroneous conclusions” that Meyer and reporter Phyllis Zorn had committed identity theft or other computer crimes.
The newspaper said it received a tip that Newell was found guilty of driving under the influence in 2008 and that Zorn had accessed the court records online through the state Revenue Department’s search engine. The newspaper investigated whether that would have made Newell ineligible to hold a liquor license. The newspaper reported that it enquired about the tip with the police.
The identical tip was given to Herbel.
Bennett and Wilkerson came to the conclusion that by using an online state database to confirm information in the business owner’s driving record, Meyer and Zorn had not broken any law.
Approximately 150 miles southwest of Kansas City sits the community of Marion, home to less than 2,000 people.
Joan Meyer, co-owner of Record, was 98 years old when she passed on the day after authorities raided Meyer’s home. He attributed her passing to the stress the raids had caused.
According to the investigation, Joan Meyer was deeply disturbed by the searches and might not have died if the raids had not taken place. However, the prosecution came to the conclusion that the cops did not have criminal liability for her demise.
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The prosecution came to the conclusion that they had solid evidence that Cody had interfered with an official legal proceeding. They said that in September, around six weeks after the raid, the Newell gave a written statement, but two pages of it were not turned in to authorities.
Additionally, there is a brief mention in the report of texts that Cody exchanged with the owner of the company following the raid. The owner of the company claims that Cody asked her to remove texts that they exchanged because she was worried that people would misinterpret their professional and platonic connection.
For a first offense, a felony obstruction conviction carries a maximum punishment of nine months in prison; however, probation for no more than 18 months is usually the norm. A misdemeanor charge carries a maximum one-year prison sentence.
