The owner of the Kansas newspaper office raided by Marion County law enforcement officials Friday revealed the paper had been actively investigating Marion Chief of Police Gideon Cody for alleged sexual misconduct claims, according to The Handbasket.
Eric Meyer, owner and publisher of the Marion County Record — the newspaper raided by law enforcement officials — revealed the paper had been actively investigating Cody following a series of sexual misconduct claims from former co-workers, The Handbasket reported.
Police officers in Kansas raided the office of the Marion County Record, a local newspaper that it turns out was investigating the police chief. “The people who did this are going to learn a very expensive lesson,” says the paper’s owner. https://t.co/VuagVytA1t
— McKay Coppins (@mckaycoppins) August 14, 2023
“When he was named Chief just two months ago, we got an outpouring of calls from his former co-workers making a wide array of allegations against him saying that he was about to be demoted at his previous job and that he retired to avoid demotion and punishment over sexual misconduct charges and other things,” Meyer stated.
Meyer explained to the outlet that because the paper couldn’t get any of Cody’s former co-workers to go on the record, and because they didn’t have access to his personnel file, they never ran the story.
“The allegations — including the identities of who made the allegations — were on one of the computers that got seized. I may be paranoid that this has anything to do with it, but when people come and seize your computer, you tend to be a little paranoid,” Meyer stated, according to The Handbasket.
While Meyer reportedly admitted he wasn’t comfortable printing individual allegations against Cody that could not be verified, he did confirm to The Handbasket his paper was actively investigating the claims.
“[I]t is true that we were investigating him and we had decided not to run anything at this point. We’re not making any allegations against him, but we had investigated allegations,” Meyer reportedly stated.
The raid, which has sparked a First Amendment “firestorm,” was reportedly initiated after local restaurant owner Kari Newell accused the newspaper of invading her privacy and illegally accessing information about her and her driving record, according to The Associated Press (AP). Newell further alleged the newspaper targeted her after she reportedly tossed Meyer and a reporter from her establishment during a political event. (RELATED: 98-Year-Old Kansas Newspaper Owner Dies After Police Raid Office, Paper Says)
Under the federal Privacy Protection Act, journalists and newsrooms are shielded from most searches by law enforcement officials, requiring police to obtain subpoenas rather than search warrants in their investigations. The search warrant for the raid was authorized by Marion County District Court Magistrate Judge Laura Viar and appeared to contradict the federal law by allowing the seizure of materials from journalists, the Kansas Reflector reported.
Cody defended the raid, which saw personal cellphones, computers and the newspaper’s file server seized by law enforcement officers, stating that once all the information behind the raid came to light, “the judicial system that is being questioned will be vindicated,” CBS News reported.
Meyer condemned the raid as an assault upon freedom and evidence of unchecked police power.
“It’s a way to dispirit people from becoming involved in government by making them think that if you do, there’s gonna be consequences and they’re going to be negative,” he told The Handbasket.