Former Kansas police chief charged one year after raid on local newspaper

By Amanda Musa, CNN

(CNN) — The former police chief who led a raid last year on a small Kansas newspaper was formally charged Monday with one count of interfering with the judicial process for actions he took after the raid, according to a criminal complaint filed in Marion County District Court.

Gideon Cody is accused of “knowingly” inducing a witness to withhold information in a felony case, the criminal complaint said.

Cody has not responded to CNN’s request for comment.

The charge comes a year after Cody allegedly ordered police to execute search warrants at the Marion County Record, the home of its publisher Eric Meyer and the home of a local city councilwoman on August 11, 2023.

The raid drew condemnation from dozens of news organizations and press freedom advocates, including CNN, for its intrusiveness and First Amendment rights concerns. Cody resigned from the Marion Police Department weeks after the raid, CNN previously reported.

Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett and Riley County Attorney Barry Wilkerson last week filed a 124-page report in which prosecutors say they found probable cause that Cody “committed the crime of obstruction of justice,” 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.

Prosecutors didn’t elaborate on the nature of the charge but said it was related to Cody’s text exchange with local restaurant owner Kari Newell after the raid.

In a statement obtained by CNN Tuesday, Meyer noted that the criminal complaint does not address the raid itself but instead focuses on an “alleged cover-up” involving efforts by Cody to have Newell delete text messages they had exchanged after the raid.

At the time of the raids, the Marion County Sheriff’s office said it was investigating “identity theft” and “unlawful acts concerning computers” based on the belief that reporter Phyllis Zorn unlawfully obtained Newell’s driving records before the paper published a story about her.

“The real resolution of this case is likely to come in civil suits we and others have filed in federal court,” Meyer said. “It’s important for us that this case be resolved not with some sort of settlement but with an actual verdict.”

CNN’s Amy Simonson, Eric Levenson, Whitney Wild and Jon Passantino contributed.

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