The person who served as Kansas police chief last year Raid on local newspaper An investigator was charged with felony obstruction of justice for allegedly persuading a potential witness to withhold information while investigating the actions of a former police chief.
Gideon Cody resigned from the Marion Police Department in September 2023, less than two months after he led the criminal investigation into employees of the Marion County Record, a weekly newspaper, accusing them of identity theft and similar computer crimes for obtaining reports on articles that were ultimately never written. He has since faced numerous federal lawsuits over his actions and the motivations behind them. It sparked national criticism and conversation. On the Rights of the Press and Freedom of the Press in the United States
The criminal complaint of obstruction of justice was filed in Marion County District Court on Monday, shortly after two special prosecutors released a comprehensive 124-page report that delved deeply into the original police investigation into the newspaper and the complex context in which it unfolded. The report, written by Sedgwick County District Attorney Mark Bennett and Lilly County District Attorney Barry Wilkerson at the request of the Marion District Attorney, found there was insufficient evidence to suggest that the police, the reporters or anyone else involved in the story or raid committed a crime under Kansas law.
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But they concluded that some of Cody’s actions after the raid on the Marion County Records, one of several search warrants executed last August in connection with how the newspaper obtained personal information on a local restaurant owner’s driver’s license, illegally obstructed the subsequent state investigation. Neither the special prosecutor’s report nor the criminal complaint against Cody provide details on exactly what he is accused of doing, but the report does note that Cody instructed the business owner, Kari Newell, to delete text messages they exchanged after the raid.
The special prosecutor said Marion City Manager Brogan Jones was told by several city attorneys on Sept. 29, 2023, that Cody had given instructions to Newell, the restaurant owner, after executing search warrants on the newspaper’s headquarters and publisher’s home in August. The mayor placed Cody on administrative leave from the Marion police department that day, and Cody resigned on Oct. 2.
The report explicitly stated that it would not provide further information about the nature of the text messages or his alleged persuasion to delete them, a claim Newell himself backed up in an interview with The Associated Press, but prosecutors indicated there was probable cause to bring an obstruction charge in connection with the text messages.
In a criminal complaint, Marion County District Attorney Barry Wilkerson alleged the incidents stemmed from actions between Aug. 11 and Aug. 17 of last year when Cody “willfully or knowingly induced a witness to withhold information” during a felony investigation.
CBS News reached out to the legal team representing Cody in the federal civil lawsuit for comment and more information about his legal representation in the criminal case, but did not immediately receive a response.
Cody originally applied for and executed a search warrant for the Marion County Records Office (the home of publisher Eric Meyer and the home of Marion City Councilwoman Ruth Hubbell) after learning that newspaper reporters had obtained Newell’s driver’s license records, which were reported to be invalid due to a previous DUI conviction more than a decade earlier.
Because she owned a local restaurant and was applying for a liquor license, there was an effort to verify her driving record, which showed she had not driven with a valid license for all those years. They ultimately did not publish the story, because her estranged husband had initially shared copies of the records with the newspaper while their divorce proceedings were ongoing, and it seemed unnecessary to involve the press in the situation, the journalists later told authorities.
Cody claimed there was evidence that the publisher and reporter broke the law while verifying driving records. The subsequent police raid to seize evidence supporting that claim was closely scrutinized. Body camera footage of the raid at the home where Myer’s 98-year-old mother and newspaper co-owner Joan Myer lived showed her visibly distressed about the ordeal before she died a day later. Her son blamed the raid and the resulting stress on his mother’s death.
