TOPEKA, Kan. — The police chief who led an August raid on a small weekly newspaper in central Kansas has resigned, just days after he was suspended from his post, a City Council member confirmed Monday.
City Councilwoman Ruth Herbel confirmed to The Associated Press that the mayor announced Chief Gideon Cody’s resignation at Monday’s City Council meeting.
The announcement comes days after Cody was suspended for undisclosed reasons, and weeks after local prosecutors said there wasn’t enough evidence to justify a search of Marion County records.
Cody did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment on his resignation.
The mayor also did not respond to texts and phone calls about it.
The public announcement of Cody’s resignation was initially reported by the Marion County Record and the Wichita Eagle.
Cody’s departure comes after recent body camera video obtained from a newspaper search showed an officer rummaging through the desk drawer of a reporter who was investigating his boss.
The video then shows the officer calling Cody to see the documents he found.
The AP obtained the body camera video on Monday through an open records request.
Cody then said, “Keep the files private on me. I don’t care,” the video shows.
He is seen briefly bending down, apparently to look at a drawer, before another officer’s clipboard blocks the view of what the chief is doing.
Cody obtained warrants to raid the newspaper’s offices, its publisher’s home and Herbel’s home by telling the judge he had evidence of possible identity theft and other potential crimes linked to the distribution of information about the local restaurant owner’s driving record.
A stack of Marion County Records lies behind the newspaper building, awaiting unpacking, sorting and distribution, Aug. 16, 2023, in Marion, Kan. AP
But the press and his attorney have suggested he may be trying to find out what has been learned about his past as a police captain in Kansas City, Missouri.
“It’s all about finding out who our sources are,” Bernie Rhodes, the paper’s lawyer, said Monday.
The raid put Marion, a town of 1,900 people about 150 miles (240 kilometers) southwest of Kansas City, at the center of a fierce national debate over press freedom and focused international attention on Cody and his tactics.
The mayor last week suspended Cody from the chief position indefinitely; he faces one federal lawsuit, and another is expected.
Marion Police Chief Gideon CodyFacebook
Local prosecutors later said that there was insufficient evidence to justify a warrant for the raid.
The Kansas Bureau of Investigation later took over the investigation and did not say where it stood.
Eric Meyer, the Record’s editor and publisher, blamed the pressure of the raid on the death of his 98-year-old mother, Joan Meyer, co-owner of the paper.
Cody did not respond early Monday to an email and phone message seeking comment on the raid and the press’ views on its motive.
But body camera video shows him repeatedly telling newspaper staff that he was investigating how he and Herbel obtained information about the owner of two local restaurants, Kari Newell.
Images created from surveillance video provided by the Marion County Record show the Marion .Police Department seizing computers and cellphones from the Marion County Record.AP publisher and staff.
“It grew into a monster, and it got your name,” Cody told Record reporter Phyllis Zorn, who confirmed the information about Newell online, after reading Zorn’s rights, a video show.
The Associated Press obtained a copy of the police department’s body camera video through an open records request from a Wichita law firm representing Cody in the federal lawsuit.
It was filed by Deb Gruver, the Record reporter who looked into Cody’s past, who recently left the newspaper.
The video of Cody on Gruver’s desk was from Marion Police Officer Zach Hudlin’s body camera.
There doesn’t seem to be a matching video of the same moment from Cody’s own camera.
The office of the Marion County Record weekly newspaper is across the street from the Marion County, Kan., Courthouse, Aug. 21, 2023, in Marion. AP
The video shows that officers, led by Cody, searched the Record newsroom after interviewing Zorn, Gruver and the paper’s business manager, and escorted them out of the building.
Hudlin then went through a drawer in Gruver’s desk — after Gruver told the chief he had nothing to do with the report on Newell.
Hudlin asked Cody, “You want to look through this table?”
Cody replied that Hudlin had a right to see it, and Hudlin replied, “I know. I’m asking, do YOU want to look through this table?”
After Cody went to the table, Hudlin told him, “You’ll understand in a minute.”
It’s unclear from the video how closely Cody examined what was inside the desk, and the objects Hudlin found — described by Rhodes as files from Cody’s time with the Kansas City, Missouri, police department.
Cody retired from the Kansas City police in late April, around the time the Marion City Council interviewed him.
He took a big cut in pay: Kansas City police paid him nearly $116,000 a year, while Marion’s job paid $60,000 annually.
Meyer said Cody knew weeks before the raid that the newspaper was looking into an anonymous tip about why Cody retired from the Kansas City police.
Meyer said when he asked Cody questions about it, Cody threatened a lawsuit.
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