Central Kansas police chief resigns after leading raid on small weekly newspaper

The police chief who led a raid on a small weekly newspaper in central Kansas in August has stepped down. This comes shortly after he was suspended from his position, as confirmed by City Council Member Ruth Herbel on Monday.

During the City Council meeting on Monday, Mayor publicly announced Chief Gideon Cody's resignation. This announcement followed Cody's suspension, which had undisclosed reasons, and the recent statement from a local prosecutor stating there was insufficient evidence to justify the raid on the Marion County Record.

There was an attempt to reach out to Cody for his comments on his resignation, but he did not immediately respond to a telephone message.

Additionally, the mayor did not reply to text messages or phone calls regarding Cody's resignation.

The news of Cody's resignation was initially reported by the Marion County Record and the Wichita Eagle.

Cody's departure occurred after newly acquired body camera footage from the newspaper raid showed an officer going through a reporter's desk drawer. The video then depicted the officer signaling Cody to examine the documents he had discovered.

The Associated Press obtained this body camera video through an open records request on Monday. In the video, Cody is heard saying, "Keep a personal file on me. I don't care," before briefly bending over to inspect the drawer, obstructed by another officer's clipboard.

Cody had obtained warrants for the newspaper's offices, the publisher's home, and Herbel's residence, citing possible identity theft and other crimes related to the release of a local restaurant owner's driving record. However, the newspaper and its attorney suggested that Cody may have been trying to uncover information about his past as a police captain in Kansas City, Missouri.

"This was all about finding out who our sources were," Bernie Rhodes, the newspaper's attorney, stated on Monday.

These raids drew national attention to the town of Marion, with its 1,900 residents located about 150 miles southwest of Kansas City, sparking a broader debate on press freedoms.

Last week, the mayor suspended Cody from his role as chief indefinitely, and he is currently facing one federal lawsuit, with more expected.

Subsequently, the local prosecutor stated that there was insufficient evidence to support the warrants for the raids. The Kansas Bureau of Investigation has taken over the investigation but has not disclosed its current status.

Eric Meyer, the Record's editor and publisher, attributed the stress from the raids to the death of his 98-year-old mother, Joan Meyer, who was also a co-owner of the newspaper.

Cody did not respond to an email and telephone message earlier on Monday regarding the raids and the newspaper's perspective on his motives.

However, the body camera footage shows Cody repeatedly stating that he was investigating how the newspaper and Herbel obtained information about the owner of two local restaurants, Kari Newell. He made these statements while reading Miranda rights to Record reporter Phyllis Zorn, who had verified information about Newell online.

The Associated Press obtained copies of the police department's body camera footage through an open records request from a Wichita law firm representing Cody in the federal lawsuit. This lawsuit was filed by Deb Gruver, a Record reporter who had been researching Cody's past and has since left the newspaper.

The video featuring Cody at Gruver's desk was recorded by Marion Police Officer Zach Hudlin. Notably, there is no corresponding video of the same moment from Cody's own camera.

The video shows officers, led by Cody, searching the Record newsroom after interviewing Zorn, Gruver, and the newspaper's business manager before escorting them out of the building.

Hudlin proceeds to go through a drawer in Gruver's desk, despite Gruver's assertion that she had no involvement in the reporting on Newell. Hudlin then asks Cody if he wants to inspect the desk, to which Cody responds that Hudlin has the right to do so. Hudlin clarifies, "I know. I'm asking, do YOU want to look through this desk?"

Following Cody's approach to the desk, Hudlin tells him, "You will understand shortly."

The video does not provide a clear view of how closely Cody examined the desk's contents or the item that Hudlin discovered, described by Rhodes as a file on Cody's tenure with the Kansas City, Missouri, police department.

Cody retired from the Kansas City police in late April, roughly around the time he was interviewed by the Marion City Council. This retirement involved a significant reduction in his salary, with the Kansas City police paying him nearly $116,000 annually, while the Marion position offers an annual salary of $60,000.

Meyer claimed that Cody had knowledge of the newspaper's investigation into anonymous tips concerning his retirement from the Kansas City police weeks before the raids. When Meyer questioned Cody about it, Cody threatened legal action.