US: The raid on the little newspaper led to the suspension of the Kansas police chief

The mayor on Saturday confirmed to The Associated Press that the police chief who oversaw a raid on a tiny Kansas newspaper that was widely condemned had been suspended. The suspension of Chief Gideon Cody was announced by Marion Mayor Dave Mayfield via text on Thursday. He refused to elaborate on his choice and would not confirm if Cody was still being paid.

The AP left voicemails and sent emails to Cody’s attorneys on Saturday, but they did not respond right away. The searches of the Marion County Record’s office, the publisher’s house, and the residence of a member of the city council on August 11 have drawn harsh criticism, placing Marion at the heart of a discussion over the First Amendment’s rights for the free press.

The mayor’s decision to suspend Cody is a turnabout from his earlier statement that he would wait for the outcome of an inquiry by the state police before acting. Vice-Mayor Ruth Herbel, whose residence was also searched on August 11, welcomed Cody’s suspension as “the best thing that can happen to Marion right now” as the 1,900-person town in central Kansas battles to advance in the face of public scrutiny. Herbel added, “We can’t duck our heads until it goes away because it won’t go away until we take action.”

With the exception of defending the raids on the police department’s Facebook page, Cody hasn’t spoken anything in public since the raids. He claimed that he had reason to think that the newspaper and Herbel, whose residence was also seized, had broken state laws against identity theft or computer crimes in court paperwork he submitted to get the search warrants.

After a local restaurant owner accused the newspaper of improperly obtaining her information, the searches took place. Although the reporter need identifying details about the restaurant owner that a tipper gave in order to dig up her driving record, a spokesperson for the organization that manages such records said the newspaper’s internet search was probably lawful.

The claims of identity theft, according to the newspaper’s publisher Eric Meyer, were only a handy pretext for the investigation after his reporters had been looking into Cody’s history since he was appointed this summer. Legal experts think the newspaper raid breached a state or federal privacy provision that exempts journalists from having to disclose their sources or unpublished materials to law authorities.

The 98-year-old mother of publisher Eric Meyer grew upset as police went through family possessions, as shown on video of the raid on his house. Meyer said that he thinks stress had a part in his mother Joan Meyer’s death a day later. A different journalist sued the police chief in federal court last month over the raid.