Former police chief slapped with felony charge after spearheading controversial raids on Kansas newspaper owner

A former police chief who once apparently professed that his department would be "vindicated" for conducting raids on the home and office of a small-town newspaper owner in Kansas has now been charged with a felony in connection with those raids.

Gideon Cody is the former police chief of Marion, Kansas, a city of fewer than 2,000 residents about 60 miles north of Wichita. A year ago, he led raids on the office of the Marion County Record and the home of its owner, Eric Meyer.

Now, Cody has been charged with felony obstruction of justice in connection with those raids after he allegedly asked local business owner Kari Newell to delete text messages that may have persuaded investigators to believe they had a romantic, rather than strictly professional, relationship.

Last August, Cody secured search warrants from Marion County District Court Magistrate Judge Laura Viar to seize computers, cell phones, digital communications, servers, hard drives, and all documents and records connected with Newell, who has a prior DUI conviction and who may have previously driven on a suspended license but who nonetheless was trying to get a liquor license for her business, as Blaze News previously reported.

'We want the whole story. We don’t want part of it.'

At the time, Newell slammed Meyer and the Record, claiming that they had uncovered the information about her past through "illegal" means. Meyer admitted that he received a tip about Newell's past but didn't print a story about it because he feared Newell's estranged husband had leaked the information in hopes of sabotaging his wife's efforts to obtain a liquor license.

Newell's information was also a matter of public record, Meyer indicated.

As soon as word about the raids broke, critics from across the country immediately decried the apparent attack on the press protections provided by the First Amendment.

All five members of the Marion Police Department, including Cody, as well as two sheriff's deputies reportedly participated in the raids on the Marion County Record and Meyer's home.

Meyer's 98-year-old mother and co-owner of the Record, Joan Meyer, who was at Meyer's home while officers executed the search warrant, died of a heart attack the day after the raids.

Footage from the raids further showed that Cody apparently seized the opportunity to peek at the files Meyer and his outlet kept about him.

Despite the appearance of impropriety, a statement from Marion PD, issued shortly after the raids and ostensibly written by Cody, insisted the raids would eventually be "vindicated."

Special prosecutors assigned to investigate the incident ultimately disagreed. In a 124-page report released earlier this month, prosecutors instead cleared Meyer, concluding that Meyer had not committed any crime in investigating Newell's past.

Furthermore, prosecutors alleged that Cody conducted an "inadequate investigation" that led him to provide Judge Viar with faulty predicates for the search warrants associated with the raids. However, they stopped short of accusing Cody of deliberately misleading the judge.

Cody, who resigned from the Marion Police Department in October, now faces what KSHB categorized as a "severity level 8 nonperson felony." If convicted, he could serve up to 23 months behind bars, though he has no prior criminal record, making the maximum sentence unlikely.

District Court Judge Ryan Rosauer has been assigned to preside over Cody's case. When Cody is next expected to appear in court is unclear.

And now, Meyer is the one celebrating vindication. "We are gratified that we have finally, officially been vindicated," he told VOA News.

Still, Meyer believes that Cody has been scapegoated for a debacle perpetrated by several officials and agencies. "We want the whole story. We don’t want part of it," Meyer claimed.

"We’re just being basic journalists here."

Meyer has previously filed multiple lawsuits in connection with the raids, including a wrongful death suit, as Blaze News previously reported. He estimated that the damages could exceed $10 million, a seemingly insurmountable sum for a city with an overall annual budget of just $9.5 million.

"The last thing we want is to bankrupt the city or county," Meyer said after filing the first lawsuit back in April, "but we have a duty to democracy and to countless news organizations and citizens nationwide to challenge such malicious and wanton violations of the First and Fourth Amendments and federal laws limiting newsroom searches."

Special prosecutors stated that officers conducting the raids committed no "gross deviation" of protocol regarding executing search warrants.

In response to a request for comment, Meyer sent Blaze News a lengthy statement expressing gratitude "to FINALLY be cleared of wrongdoing" as well as frustration about the system more generally.

"Even though special prosecutors clearly indicated the raid was wrong, the charges filed aren’t about the raid but rather about an alleged cover-up afterward — Chief Gideon Cody’s efforts to have supposed victim Kari Newell delete text messages they had exchanged," Meyer told Blaze News.

"We don’t even get the right to vote on elected officials involved. The magistrate is from a different county, and our county can’t vote on whether to retain her. The local prosecutor has refused to file for re-election. No one’s name will appear on the ballot this fall, and courts will end up having to appoint someone not answerable to voters."

Editor's note: The headline has been adjusted to include the word 'charge.' The article has been updated to include other alleged details of the investigation as well as portions of a statement given to Blaze News by Eric Meyer.

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