Despite receiving national attention for raiding the offices of a small town Kansas newspaper and the residence of its owner, few are calling for the resignation of Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody.
On Aug. 11, Cody signed a search warrant for the headquarters of the Marion County Record and its co-owner Joan Meyer’s home, claiming that one of its reporters illegally obtained the driver’s license information of a local restaurant owner.
The 98-year-old Meyer died the following day from a “sudden cardiac arrest.” A coroner’s report lists anxiety and anger as contributing causes, the outlet reported.
Officers took computers, cell phones and other electronic equipment. They were returned on Aug. 16, after Marion County Attorney Joel Ensey concluded that “insufficient evidence exists to establish a legally sufficient nexus between this alleged crime and the places searched and the items seized.”
The Kansas Bureau of Investigation has opened an inquiry into the matter.
Officers also raided the home of Marion City Vice Mayor Ruth Herbel, 80. The newspaper has maintained that accessing the information, which showed that the restaurant owner had been driving with a suspended license for 15 years, was not illegal.
The Kansas Department of Revenue, the agency that held the information, agreed with them.
“The website is public-facing, and anyone can use it,” Zack Denney, an agency spokesperson, the Washington Post.
Herbel’s husband was left traumatized by the raid, she said in an interview, adding that he suffers from dementia and a heart condition.
“They had no reason to come to my house and raid my house,” she told The Wichita Eagle. Herbel has called on Cody to resign.
The city council has yet to publicly comment on the matter and said that it would not be doing so at a Monday meeting, writing in its agenda that “council will not comment on the ongoing criminal investigation at this meeting” in red all-capital letters followed by 47 exclamation points.
But during the meeting’s public comment portion, town resident Darvin Markley addressed the council saying, “The world is watching Marion. There has to be accountability for those involved.”
He added that Cody can “take his high horse he brought into this community and giddy up on out of town.” He was the only resident to bring up Cody.
The police chief stood by his actions following the raid but has not publicly given a rationale, telling news outlets that “when the rest of the story is available to the public, the judicial system that is being questioned will be vindicated.”
On Aug. 13, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and over 35 news outlets sent a letter to Cody condemning his actions, stating that the raid might have “violated federal law strictly limiting federal, state and local law enforcement’s ability to conduct newsroom searches.”
In addition, the search and seizure of property “appeared overbroad and unduly intrusive.”
Other press groups echoed those sentiments this week. WGA East and the NewsGuild, two labor unions representing journalists, issued a joint statement calling for the police department to be held accountable.
“The officers and officials who seized computers, phones and other data from reporters and the newspaper’s offices engaged in activities that are an affront to the constitutionally protected rights of journalists and news media workers.”
It continued: “Press freedom is a cornerstone of our democracy that is enshrined in the First Amendment of our Constitution and our unions will do everything to protect and preserve a free and independent press.”
