By Megan Moser/Manhattan Mercury
An investigation has found probable cause to file criminal charges against the former Marion County police chief who last year raided the local newspaper office, which was investigating claims against him.
That’s from a report by prosecutors tasked with investigating the case, including Riley County Attorney Barry Wilkerson and Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett.
Law enforcement officers on Aug. 11, 2023, searched the newspaper office as well as publisher and editor Eric Meyer’s home, seizing computers and cell phones.
According to documents obtained by The Mercury, the special prosecutors found probable cause that Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody committed obstruction of the judicial process after the execution of the search warrants. The report said the charging documents will be sought in a separate proceeding in Marion District Court.
The report said there was insufficient evidence to establish mens rea for the commission of crimes by Cody and other officers related to the investigation that led to the search warrants.
Meanwhile, the 124-page report found no cause to charge the reporters and editor of the Marion County Record, who had been accused of illegally obtaining driver’s license information for Kari Newell, a local restaurant owner who had been seeking a liquor license, which requires a valid driver’s license. Newell reportedly had been driving on a suspended license for years. Newell asked Cody to remove Marion County Record reporters from a political event at her restaurant.
The newspaper had received the driver’s license information that originally came from Newell’s ex-husband, who was in a divorce dispute with Newell and was upset he had to pay her car expenses. The newspaper consulted an attorney and determined that the information had been obtained legally, but the claim that reporters had effectively stolen Newell’s identity to get the information was the basis of the rationale for the search warrant.
When Cody was hired, the newspaper said it received anonymous complaints about Cody’s conduct from people who had worked with him previously. The newspaper was investigating the claims, and Cody had threatened to sue for libel. Meyer has said he believes this was part of the reason for the raid.
The Kansas Bureau of Investigation first began the inquiry before turning it over to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation in November. The Marion County attorney asked Bennett and Wilkerson to serve as special prosecutors to review the events that led to the issuance of the search warrants.
