Former police chief involved in Kansas newspaper raid will be prosecuted

The former police chief who spearheaded a raid on a small Kansas newspaper will face charges for interfering with the judicial process, according to prosecutors.

Last year, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office said it was investigating “identity theft” and “unlawful acts concerning computers.” It said it believed one of the reporters at the newspaper unlawfully obtained the driving records of local restaurant owner Kari Newell before publishing a story. It searched the Marion County Record, the home of the newspaper’s publisher, Eric Meyer, as well as the home of a local city councilwoman in August 2023. 

The raid drew national criticism, with many saying it infringed on journalists’ First Amendment right to a free press. Less than a week after criticism began of the raids, the county prosecutor, Joel Ensey, withdrew the search warrants and asked authorities to return anything that was seized during the raids because “insufficient evidence exists to establish a legally sufficient nexus between this alleged crime and the places searched and the items seized.”

In a report, special prosecutors said they found probable cause that Gideon Cody, the former police chief who led the raids, “committed the crime of obstruction of justice,” which is defined under Kansas law as “knowingly or intentionally” inducing a “witness or informant to withhold or unreasonably delay” the production of testimony, information, or documents. 

The nature of the charge was not fully disclosed by prosecutors, but they said it was related to a text exchange between Cody and Newell after the raid.

“The specter of ulterior motives, personal animus and conclusions based not on investigation but rather on assumptions permeates much of this case,” the report says.

In an email statement to CNN, Meyer, the publisher, was “pleased” with the report’s findings but frustrated with the timing.

“We are, of course, pleased that authorities finally have stated in public that we committed no wrongdoing,” he said. “We have no idea why it took them almost a year to do this. Their report makes it clear that they arrived at this conclusion mere days after the raid. Yet they left us swinging in the wind. That’s disappointing, to say the least.”

“We also are pleased that they believe, as we long have, that Gideon Cody violated state law. Unfortunately, others involved in the case — those who didn’t flee the state — seem to have escaped similar scrutiny,” Meyer said.

“We understand that state criminal charges might not be possible against some of them. That’s why federal civil suits will continue, why there should be public outrage over some officials’ failure to perform even the most fundamental responsibilities of their positions, and why state laws allowing them to escape responsibility may need to be changed,” he continued.

The reporter who was at the center of the raid, Phyllis Zorn, also was pleased that charges were being pressed.

“There have been times over the last year when I was worried because there were so many law enforcement officers lined up against me,” she said in a statement to the outlet. “But I have faith that eventually justice will be done.”