The former Kansas police chief who led the manhunt against a Marion County newspaper, a journalist and its 98-year-old co-owner will face criminal charges after an independent investigation found evidence he interfered with the legal process.
Joan Meyer, 98, co-owner of Marion County Records, died the day after police knocked on her door with an illegally obtained search warrant. She was seen on home security footage telling officers to “get out.” Prosecutors later dropped the warrant, saying then-Police Chief Gideon Cody had not presented enough evidence to properly obtain it.
“It’s not surprising that a fair-minded law enforcement officer would conclude that journalism is not a crime, but destroying evidence is,” the paper’s attorney, Bernie Rose, told Fox News Digital on Monday. “So we’re pleased that the special counsel recognized that Gideon Cody is not a fair-minded law enforcement officer and that he must suffer the consequences of his judgment.”
A special counsel on Monday said he plans to indict Cody, who resigned last year after an independent investigation, on charges of interference with the judicial process. Kansas City Star I reported it earlier.
Kansas prosecutors drop search warrant used in controversial newspaper raid after owner’s death
A memorial to late Marion County Record co-owner Joan Meyer is placed outside the newspaper’s offices in Marion, Kansas, on Monday, Aug. 14, 2023. Meyer died Saturday, Aug. 12, one day after local police raided the home and business offices she shared with her son, Eric Meyer, the paper’s editor and publisher. Eric Meyer believes the stress of the raid contributed to his mother’s death. (AP Photo/John Hanna)
Special prosecutors, Sedgwick County District Attorney Mark Bennett and Riley County Attorney Barry Wilkerson, also concluded that neither the newspaper nor its reporters had committed any crimes before they were raided.
“We believed that an independent special counsel, not from Marion, would conduct exactly what they did – an independent investigation,” Rose said.
The 124-page report, obtained by The Star, said the attack likely played a role in Meyer’s death but that no criminal charges were brought against the officers who carried it out.
Separately, the Record is suing city officials, including Cody’s mayor and the county sheriff, for allegedly violating the First Amendment.
WATCH: 98-year-old Kansas woman berates officers who searched her home before the warrant was dropped
Sunday at Meyer’s house Record Newsroom.
Last words of small-town newspaperwoman who died after a suspicious police raid: “Hitler tactics.”
The incident came after reporters from the paper were investigating allegations that candy store owner Kari Newell was driving a car while her license was suspended for drunk driving. The paper was subsequently charged with identity theft and unauthorized computer access, and its computers, smartphones and other devices were seized.
Marion County Record Publisher Eric Meyer speaks to reporters after a police raid on the paper’s offices and home, Monday, Aug. 14, 2023, in Marion County, Kansas. Meyer has received offers of help from across the country, and the Society of Journalists has pledged to donate $20,000 to the paper’s legal defense. (AP Photo/John Hanna)
Reporters had been investigating Newell’s drunk driving allegations but didn’t run the story because editors felt the source who initially provided the information had a potential conflict of interest. But after a search, the paper also uncovered that the source claimed police knew Newell’s license was suspended but let him go when he was caught driving.
Newell told Fox News Digital at the time that he would not comment on the matter.
Before her death, Joan Meyer described the police department’s actions as “Hitler tactics,” Rose said.
The offices of the Marion County Record, a weekly newspaper, are pictured on Aug. 21, 2023, in Marion, Kansas. (Associated Press)
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The Marion County Record was established in 1874 by E. W. Hock, whose family newspaper The paper survived for more than a century before Meyer and her husband bought it in 1998 to save it from a corporate chain, according to the Reflector. Bill Meyer, who died in 2006, had worked at the paper since 1948.
Separately, a state review board acquitted the magistrate who originally signed the warrant.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
