Ex-Marion police chief says he’s not guilty in text message case tied to newspaper raid

The former Kansas police chief who orchestrated a newspaper raid of the Marion County Record pleaded not guilty Wednesday to illegally ordering a witness to delete text messages between them in the weeks surrounding the Aug. 11, 2023 search warrants.

Gideon Cody — hired in 2023 as Marion police chief after leaving the Kansas City Police Department under a cloud of possible discipline and demotion — faces one count of interference with the judicial process by inducing a witness to withhold or delay information, a felony with a possible punishment of seven to 23 months in prison.

Cody’s lawyer, Wichita defense attorney Sal Intagliata, argued Wednesday that it was legally impossible for Cody’s instructions to Kari Newell to be withholding information because he was the lead investigator in the case and had copies of the text messages on his own phone.

“It’s impossible to withhold information from Mr. Cody, the investigator, that he already had, and that’s where we’re at in this case,” Intagliata said. “It goes no further than that. That’s the reality of the situation.”

Marc Bennett, Sedgwick County district attorney and special prosecutor in the Cody case, said it was clear from the text messages themselves that Cody wanted Newell to delete the text messages to keep them a secret. Cody did not disclose the text messages for a year and a half, he added.

“Did you see any of these texts in any of the reports submitted by Cody? No,” Bennett said.

The court found a jury should determine whether Cody broke the law.

Newell, a restaurateur at the center of the controversy, testified Wednesday that she met Cody at a Kiwanis Club luncheon shortly after he was hired by then-Mayor David Mayfield as the chief of police in Marion, a small town about an hour north of Wichita. There, they exchanged cell phone numbers, and they remained in contact before, during and after the raids.

The text messages, some of which have been publicly released through separate federal and state lawsuits, show they spoke about the raids and more personal matters.

A week before the raids, Cody sent a text message to Newell at 1:46 a.m. asking why she texted him the night before.

“Nothing important,” she wrote back that afternoon. “Was having a need a friend moment. It passed.”

He wrote back at 11:19 p.m. “What time do you get off work,” but Newell reminded him she was attending a concert that night. “I’ve got an extra ticket, but it’s a 2 hr drive. Lol.”

“Maybe text me on your way home if you like,” he wrote back at 11:22 p.m. “Sure,” she responded.

Three days later, on Aug. 7, Cody tried to call her to tell her about a letter the Marion County Record and then-Vice Mayor Ruth Herbel had obtained about her driving record, but she was in divorce court at the time, Newell testified Wednesday.

“In court what’s up buttercup,” she asked.

“Call me when you can. Important,” Cody wrote back.

In the immediate aftermath of the raids, Newell appeared to be the driving force behind the investigation into the Record, owner and publisher Eric Meyer and former Vice Mayor Ruth Herbel. But Newell has since disclosed that Cody called her at the onset of his investigation to alert her that he believed she was the victim of a crime.

When she called him back on Aug. 7 after her divorce hearing, Cody told her that a letter showing her driver’s license had been suspended due to a DUI had been illegally obtained by people who wanted to cause her harm. It was potentially stolen from her mailbox, Cody told her, according to her testimony on Wednesday.

Newell later submitted a written complaint that was used to bolster the investigation.

The Record and Herbel actually obtained the letter through Facebook. Record reporter Phyllis Zorn later verified the information using the Kansas Department of Revenue’s public online database. They had questioned the city of Marion and the Marion County sheriff on whether Newell should be granted a liquor license, given the DUI, and whether law enforcement had been allowing her to drive in Marion illegally.

Newell was out of town when Cody served search warrants at the Record and the private residences of Meyer and Herbel. The raids led to a public outcry. And within 24 hours, Meyer’s 98-year-old mother, Joan Meyer, died. Meyer says the stress from the raid on their home caused her death.

The text messages and Newell’s testimony on Wednesday suggested she was surprised by what happened.

On the evening of the Aug. 11 raids, Newell wrote Cody, “I’m getting messages wtf is going down?” to which he replied “Confidential. Sorry.”

Federal lawsuits filed by the Record and Herbel allege Newell and Cody were part of a larger conspiracy orchestrated by Mayfield and various other city and county officials aimed at punishing them for pushing back against the political establishment in Marion. Cody, who resigned Oct. 2, 2023, is the only official who faces a criminal charge.

The charge stems from Cody’s decision on Aug. 17 — as his case against the paper and Herbel began to unravel — to tell Newell to delete their text messages, prosecutors say. Newell said he told her it was for her own protection against accusations that the two of them were having an affair as she was going through a divorce.

Cody continued text messaging and calling Newell. A week after the raids, Cody sent her the phone number of a publisher he was working with on a book deal giving his account of the raids, Newell said. She didn’t say why he sent it to her.

Newell said she later began to have concerns about Cody’s instructions to delete the messages. They had a conversation about it on Sept. 26, 2023, and have not had any communications since then, she testified. About a week later, he resigned from his position. He now lives in Hawaii and attended Tuesday’s hearing remotely via Zoom.

Kansas District Judge Ryan W. Rosauer found that state special prosecutors Marc Bennett and Barry Wilkerson presented sufficient probable cause to move to trial. It’s scheduled to start Feb. 2, 2026.

This story was originally published October 15, 2025 at 5:45 PM.