Former police chief charged by prosecutors in connection with 2023 newspaper raid

Ex- Marion, Kansas Police Head Gideon Cody faces charges for his involvement in a probe that included searching the premises of a local newspaper and the residence of its proprietors, legal documents revealed.

Cody was indicted for obstructing a legal process, a serious offense.

Barry Wilkerson, the Special Prosecutor tasked with examining the matter, pressed charges against Cody, alleging in the court submission that Cody “persuaded a witness to withhold information.”

In a 124-page report released earlier this month, Wilkerson, the District Attorney of Riley County, Kansas, and Sedgewick County DA Marc Bennett concluded that the newspaper staff did not commit any offenses preceding the police raid on the Marion County Record offices in August 2023.

The search last year was triggered by a complaint from a well-known local entrepreneur and critic of the newspaper, who accused two city council members at a public gathering of unlawfully sharing sensitive information about her driving history.

This initiated an inquiry by then-Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody into whether the journalist pilfered the documents and also resulted in a search of the proprietor Eric Meyer and his 98-year-old mother Joan Meyer’s residence.

Eric Meyer, the proprietor of the Marion County Record, asserted at the time that his newspaper received a tip about the entrepreneur’s driving record but never published a piece on it.

Joan Meyer passed away shortly after the search on her home.

Seth Stern, the Advocate Director at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, labeled the search as “illegal” and expressed his approval of the charges against Cody.

The two prosecutors determined that the journalist did not violate any laws in conducting her research on the driving records.

Wilkerson and Bennett concluded in their 2024 report that once a Marion officer consulted with a Kansas Dept. of Revenue official and found no criminal activity, the case should have been closed.

The prosecutors expressed concern about the execution of search warrants.

“The presence of hidden motives, personal grudges, and conclusions drawn not from investigation but from assumptions taints a large part of this case,” the prosecutors stated in the report. “These aspects arguably influenced the views of both Marion law enforcement and civilians involved.”

In a statement to ABC News last August, Cody mentioned exceptions to the federal law governing law enforcement’s ability to search newsrooms, specifically highlighting, “When there is suspicion of a journalist engaging in the underlying offense.”

Eric Meyer refuted allegations of wrongdoing by his staff and stated that his journalists informed the Marion Police Department about the tip they received regarding the local business owner, but received no response.