Following a series of raids, which targeted the local newspaper’s office and the residence of the vice mayor of the city, the police chief of Marion, Kansas, was suspended this week.
The Marion County Record, the same publication that was searched, reported that Marion Mayor David Mayfield had suspended Police Chief Gideon Cody on Thursday.
On Saturday, the Marion Police Department announced the suspension. Requests for comment from the mayor’s office were not immediately fulfilled.
According to court documents previously made available by the paper’s attorney, the newsroom, publisher Eric Meyer’s house, and Vice Mayor Ruth Herbel’s house were all searched on August 11 as a result of Cody’s stated suspicion that a reporter had stolen someone’s identity by accessing the driver records of restaurant owner Kari Newell.
According to statements made by the chief in affidavits, “downloading the document entailed either impersonating the victim or lying regarding the reasons why the record was being sought.”
The newspaper said, nevertheless, that reporter Phyllis Zorn discovered the documents via the state Revenue Department’s internet database after receiving a tip that Newell had been found guilty of DUI in 2008. The newspaper was curious as to whether that would bar Newell from obtaining a liquor license. The tabloid claimed to have questioned police regarding the tip.
A similar suggestion had been given to Herbel as well.
Joel Ensey, the county attorney for Marion, then asked police to restore any stolen property, claiming they lacked sufficient justification for the raids.
Herbel, who had demanded Cody’s dismissal, claimed that the search of her home was “illegal” and that her phone and computer had been taken without “any justification.” She additionally charged the police chief with forging the paperwork required to obtain the search warrants.
At a City Council meeting last week, she claimed that the county attorney changed the search warrants after they had been served on her, changing the words “identity theft and unlawful acts concerning computers” to “identity theft and official misconduct” before filing the warrant in district court. “This is a criminal fraud.”
The search was deemed unnecessary by the press as well. His 98-year-old mother, co-owner of Record, Joan Meyer, passed away the same day after authorities searched Meyer’s home. He attributed her death to stress brought on by what had occurred.