Police Chief Who Headed Raid Of Kansas Newspaper Resigns Rather Than ‘Defend His Actions’
A few months ago, the Marion, Kansas police department made the immediately regrettable decision to raid the office of the local paper, as well as the home of the paper's owner.
According to Police Chief Gideon Cody, this was the proper thing to do. The paper's journalists were suspected of breaking state laws pertaining to computer crimes and identity fraud.
The backstory made things a bit clearer. Local business owner Kari Newell was seeking a liquor license. Meanwhile, she was apparently in the middle of a rather messy divorce. Her estranged husband allegedly leaked details of her arrest for DUI and driving without a license to the Marion County Record.
The Marion County Record did its due diligence and verified the arrest using public records made available by an area news outlet. Then it decided not to publish anything about this, deciding it did not want to be seen as a combatant in combative divorce proceedings. It did, however, inform the police someone had passed them this tip and asked the PD to verify the alleged facts.
At that same time, another Marion County Record reporter was digging into Chief Cody's past, trying to figure out why he would leave a presumably well-paying position with the Kansas City PD for a far less-lucrative position at the head of the Marion County PD.
Somehow, this all culminated in the raids mentioned above. The latter raid, which involved several officers entering the home of 98-year-old paper co-owner Joan Meyer's house, ended with the seizure of her electronics. It also ended with her death. Meyer passed away less than two days after the raid was carried out.
Since then, it's all gone sideways (and backwards) for the Marion County PD. The local prosecutor, Joel Ensey (who has his own ties to Kari Newell) retracted the warrants, claiming they weren't supported by probable cause. He also sought a court order for the return of all devices and data seized by the PD. The warrants were approved by someone else with a connection of sorts to Kari Newell and her alleged moving violations. Judge Laura Viar, a recent appointee to the county post, has been arrested at least twice for driving under the influence.
The Kansas Bureau of Investigation is now looking into the warrants and subsequent raids, apparently in order to determine whether these were lawful, unlawful, or just extremely ill-advised.
The raids attracted the attention of the international press. Everything about the raids suggested a police chief and his underlings acting vindictively to punish reporters for asking too many questions and protecting powerful friends, like business owner Kari Newell.
Some of this has been confirmed, albeit obliquely.
[Kari] Newell said [Chief] Cody sent her that information via text message on Aug. 7.
[He] said, This is Chief Cody, we believe you've been the victim of a crime,'" Newell said.
Newell is a local restaurant owner whose driving record Cody used as a premise to raid Marion County Record and two homes.
The day of Newell's interview, Newell said she no longer had the text messages between her and Cody.
The I-Team asked Newell for the text messages between her and Cody, but according to Newell, she deleted the text messages at the chief's behest.
Not a good look. And definitely not a good look that Chief Cody was using a personal phone to engage in his public duties. While it's understandable officers may reach out personally to crime victims, anything having to do with ongoing investigations should be on the permanent record - detailed in reports and/or handled via official communication lines.
Since the cop shop and local politicians preferred using personal phones rather than public email accounts or anything else subject to Kansas open records laws, the Marion County Record has had no luck obtaining these communications via public records requests.
Marion County officials say they have no way to obtain texts and emails sent and received with personal devices, nor do they have any way of forcing these officials to turn over these communications. And that's probably true, unfortunately. However, that doesn't mean these communications are beyond the reach of subpoena in the lawsuit already ongoing, much less the lawsuits that are sure to follow. And Newell's decision to delete these text messages is probably going to hurt Chief Cody more than it hurts her during ongoing litigation, if only because it's unlikely Newell will be named as a defendant.
Chief Cody is now former Chief Cody. He's decided to get out before it gets any worse for him. His reason for abandoning his post? He simply does not want to have to answer for his actions.
KHSB News 41 - the same station that obtained Newell's admission she had deleted her texts with Chief Cody at Cody's request - obtained a copy of Cody's resignation letter, which explicitly states he does not want to take responsibility for this debacle.
Mayor,
I have not intended for myself to be such a distraction for the City.I would like to resign effective 15th of October if that is okay with you.
I do not want to defend my actions to the Council and I do not want for everyone to have to formally discuss any discipline.
I believe if the circumstances were known then it would mitigate your response but I am getting exhausted from the media pressure much like all of you. I believe Jennifer Hill will be sending something in regards to this. I don't believe this resignation will hinder the city's defense regarding the search warrant. A response will be forthcoming on 10/04 that will shed more light on this.
It is possible Cody means he believes his actions are defensible but thinks he shouldn't have to defend them. But the wording suggests Cody would rather walk away from this than take what's coming to him. It looks far more cowardly than honorable. And the weak sauce of if the circumstances were known" is nothing more than the former chief implying everyone else but him is wrong about this.
Cody's standard communications m.o. applies here as well:
The email was sent from Cody's personal email address and delivered to Mayfield's private email address.
His last bit of official business for Marion County, sent via and delivered to unofficial email accounts. As for the 10/04" date mentioned in the resignation email, it appears to be a typo. The email was sent October 15th, meaning the promised forthcoming response" won't be delivered until sometime in the future at whatever date the former chief meant to type.
So, it's a good thing he's gone. But it's not that great that he's able to eject himself from the proverbial plane he's been flying into the ground for the past few months. That means he'll survive the wreck, but everyone else without this luxury will have to deal with the collateral damage. And it means he'll just move on to his next law enforcement job, free of any lingering marks on his permanent record.