Former Marion, Ks., Police Chief Gideon Cody
MARION – Two Kansas county prosecutors probing the August 2023 police raid on The Marion Record newspaper office and the homes of its employees say they will charge former Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody in that incident.
Sedgwick County District Attorney Mark Bennett and Riley County Attorney Barry Wilkerson said in an investigation report that neither the newspaper nor its staff, whose equipment was confiscated and withheld for several days before being returned, committed any crimes to justify the police action.
The initial report did not make it clear whether Cody would be charged with a felony or a misdemeanor, but either may be justifiable depending on applications of Kansas statutes. The case with formal charges is expected to be filed this week.
Cody led city and county law officers on a raid of the Record’s offices, as well as the home of its publishers and a city commissioner, on August 11th of last year, on the suspicion that the newspaper had falsified an identification documents in order to gain Kansas driver’s license information on a local woman applying for a city liquor license. That information was publicly available as an online public record, but District Magistrate Judge Laura Viar signed a search warrant for the raid anyway.
The Kansas Commission on Judicial Conduct dismissed a complaint against Viar regarding the incident in December 2023, After Viar told the panel District Judge Susan Robson and Cody confirmed to her that Kansas Bureau of Investigation agents were prepared to join the raid. That assertion turned out not to be true, although Cody signed the sworn affidavit. Cody subsequently resigned his position.
Former Marion County record reporter Deb Gruver received a $235,000 settlement in July from the City of Marion’s liability insurance carrier for a lawsuit she filed alleging a violation of her civil rights.
The newspaper’s 98 year-old co-publisher, Joan Meyer, died a day after police occupied her home for hours during their search.
Dane Hicks is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism and the United States Marine Corps Officer Candidate School at Quantico, VA. He is the author of novels "The Skinning Tree" and "A Whisper For Help." As publisher of the Anderson County Review in Garnett, KS., he is a recipient of the Kansas Press Association's Boyd Community Service Award as well as more than 60 awards for excellence in news, editorial and photography.
