Most embarrassing leak ever: Marion police chief’s own video shows he’s unfit to serve | Opinion
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Police raid of Kansas newspaper
A police raid Aug. 11, 2023, on a local newspaper in Marion, Kansas, sparked First Amendment concerns across the country.
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Last August’s raid on the Marion County Record newspaper was already bad enough, but evidence has now surfaced indicating the depth of collusion that took place between the city’s police chief and a local restaurateur, whose personal feud with the paper sparked an outrageous assault on the First Amendment.
Newly discovered video shows now-former Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody calling restaurant owner Kari Newell as he was driving between scenes where he and officers under his command were rifling files and seizing computers and cellphones from the paper’s owners, staff and the town’s vice mayor, Ruth Herbel.
The video was accidentally recorded by Cody’s own body camera.
The ill-advised and probably illegal police action against the newspaper drew national attention and many — myself included — believe the stress of the situation contributed to the death of the paper’s 98-year-old co-owner, Joan Meyer, who collapsed and died in her home the day after police raided it.
Mrs. Meyer, who owned the paper with her son, Eric, told me the day of the raid that it was “Hitler tactics,” an accusation not lightly thrown about by those who actually lived through that era.
The video appears to confirm rumors, circulating in Marion for months, that there was more to the relationship between Cody and Newell than a professional association.
Police officials seldom, if ever, call civilian complaintants to update them on their progress while they’re executing a search warrant. In the body camera video, Cody calls Newell “Honey,” which is not generally how law-enforcement officials address citizens whose criminal complaints they’re following up on.
Their closeness had been demonstrated earlier, when Cody ejected Record journalists, at Newell’s request, from a town hall meeting with the local congressman, Rep. Jake LaTurner. The meeting was held in one of Newell’s restaurants and included a crowd of city and county officials.
In the newly discovered video, Cody inappropriately shares with Newell a detailed description of the newspaper raid — where he’d been, what he’d done, what he told people and what they told him.
Newell said that someone from the hotel where she has one of her restaurants had told her, “The whole staff of the newspaper is out on the sidewalk and all the computer equipment’s leaving the building.”
Cody’s flippant response: “Yeah, surprising how that works, isn’t it?”
Newell: “Wow, that was fast service.”
Cody, laughing: “Yeah, and I just hit Ruth’s, and um, Eric’s, so . . .”
Newell: “Holy s---.”
Cody: “Now I’m heading to Eric’s house, but I’ve got to stop and (inaudible) first.”
‘It gives me permission to take ‘em’
He then goes on to describe the seizure of the newspaper’s and staff’s electronics: “I tried downloading ‘em, ‘cause I’m not trying to disrupt their business, but it didn’t work, so f--- it, it gives me permission to take ‘em. So I took the ones (from employees) that I think were culpable. I’ve taken numerous ones, and I got, you know, a lot of good evidence already, too.”
He also described his confrontation that day with Deb Gruver, a former Eagle reporter working for the Record when it was raided.
“Somebody tried to make a phone call in front of me, I yanked it (the phone) out of her hand. Like, do not do that,” he said. Then he added, ironically, “So, I’m trying to be nice.”
Gruver has filed a federal lawsuit alleging that Cody violated her rights and, in grabbing her phone, reinjured a finger that had been previously dislocated. It’s the first of what are expected to be multiple lawsuits in connection with the raid.
We can safely assume the video recording is accidental for two reasons: 1) At the start of the conversation, Cody warns Newell, “We can’t write anything” to each other and she replies “Yeah, I know, I understand.” And 2) Immediately after he hangs up, Cody video-recorded himself taking a leak in the men’s room at a Casey’s General Store.
Before the raid, Gruver and other Record staff had been investigating Cody and Newell — Cody on allegations that he resigned his job as a captain of the Kansas City, Missouri, police under a cloud of sexual misconduct allegations, and Newell over an issue of whether she qualified for a restaurant liquor license with a case of driving under the influence on her record, unresolved since 2008.
The lame justification for the raid was that the paper may have invaded Newell’s privacy by accessing a state website to confirm she didn’t have a driver’s license. Even if true, the proper course would have been for Newell to file a civil lawsuit for damages, not for her friend with a badge to illegally rifle a newspaper office on both their behalf.
On Aug. 16, five days after the raid, I called on the Marion City Council to fire Chief Cody, who appears to have violated a federal law that protects journalists from police tactics like his — and for having misrepresented the content of that law in a written public statement.
Cody later resigned under pressure.
But this newly discovered video provides clear evidence of Cody’s collusion and using the color of police authority to do special favors for his special friend.
So today, I’ll call on the Kansas Commission on Peace Officers’ Standards and Training to revoke Cody’s certification as a law enforcement officer.
Enough’s enough. Cody has shown repeatedly through his actions, and now his own words, why he’s unfit for service in any police department.
This story was originally published November 17, 2023 at 5:15 AM.
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