A furious small town Kansas newspaper editor was seen staring darts at the police chief who raided his newsroom last year and caused his 98-year-old mother to drop dead.
Eric Meyer, the editor of the Marion County Record, did not look pleased as former Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody made his first court appearance on Monday to face a charge of interference with the judicial process.
The felony charge stems from the former officers actions following an August 11, 2023 raid of the Marion County Record newsroom, when he is alleged to have told restaurateur Kari Newell to delete text messages between them.
It is the only criminal charge filed in relation to the raid, which also saw officers storm the homes of the newspapers co-owner, Joan Meyer, 98, and Vice Mayor Ruth Herbel.
Meyer, the current owners mother, died just one day after her house was raided in the investigation, but no criminal charges have been brought in her death.
Former Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody made his first court appearance on Monday to face a charge of interference with the judicial process
Eric Meyer, the editor of the Marion County Record, was seen giving him death glances in court
The raids on August 11, 2023 came just days after Newell, a former coffee shop owner, accused Marion County Record reporter Phyllis Zorn of illegally accessing her private information to confirm a tip that she had been convicted of a DUI 15 years before.
She claimed Cody, former Marion Mayor David Mayfield and City Councilmember Zach Colllett all contacted her to tell her that Vice Mayor Herbel knew about her past DUI conviction and intended to use that information to deny her a liquor license.
Police officer Zach Hudlin then called the Kansas Department of Revenue about their system, and a representative told him the agency was trying to fix an issue because anybody can pull up information, according to the special prosecutors report.
He then reached the erroneous conclusion that Zorn falsified her identity to access Newells driving record, it says.
That became the basis of Codys search warrant application for the newspaper and the private homes of Herbel and Meyer.
But it turned out both the Marion County Record and Herbel legally obtained the records, which had been posted to Facebook, the Spokesman-Review reports.
The felony charge stems from the former officers actions following an August 11, 2023 raid on a newsroom as well as the homes of the newspapers co-owner, Joan Meyer, 98, and Vice Mayor Ruth Herbel
Video of the police raid on Joan Meyer’s home would later go viral, showing her yelling at the officers to get out just one day before she would die.
Dont you touch any of that stuff, the Marion County Record co-owner told cops in the footage as she moved around her home with a walker. This is my house. You assh**e!
Announcing Joans death the following day, the newspapers website read: She had not been able to eat after police showed up at the door of her home. Neither was she able to sleep Friday night.
She tearfully watched during the raid as police not only carter away her computer...but also dug through her son Erics personal bank and investment statements.
The woman had been in good health for her age, but died over the weekend, Eric said.
He has said that when he woke his mother to offer her breakfast the next day she died mid-sentence.
Eric now blames her death on the grief and stress from the raid, and a coroners report states that Joan died of sudden cardiac arrest.
I am perturbed — I carefully chose that word — as all get out about them raiding our office, but what bothers me most is a 98-year-old woman spent her last day on earth feeling under attack by bullies who invaded her house, he said.
The special prosecutors report also noted that Joan may not have died if the raids had not been carried out - but concluded that officers were not criminally responsible for her death.
Joan Meyer, 98, died of a sudden heart attack just one day after the raid at her home
In the aftermath, the Marion County Record alleged the police department was trying to retaliate against its investigation into Codys history.
He had left the Kansas City Police Department while under internal review for allegedly making sexist comments to a female officer.
Eric said his newspaper was contacted by Codys former colleagues about the claims but that the six-plus anonymous sources ultimately never went on the record - and reporters could not obtain Codys personnel file.
He said the identity of the sources was on the computer servers, which Codys team seized.
During the raid on the newspaper office, Cody even looked through a reporters desk and asked: Whats in this? Hmm, a file on me? Keep a personal file on me, I dont care, according to the Kansas City Star.
But the file was not removed from the newsroom during the raid - and the special prosecutors have concluded there was no evidence to suggest Cody conducted the raid out of retaliation.
If Chief Cody harbored ill-motived toward the Marion County Record, he managed to keep them hidden in personal communication wit other officers, both verbal and electronic, the report said.
It goes on to note that it is not a crime under Kansas law for a law enforcement officer to conduct a poor investigation.
Defense attorneys representing Cody are trying to get the criminal charges against him dismissed
But as news of the raids spread nationally - and even internationally - shining a negative light on the Marion County Police Department, Cody tried to defend his actions.
He told Marion County Attorney Joel Ensey that the Kansas Bureau of Investigation was 100 percent behind me.
A KBI investigator, however, said Cody had to live in fantasy land to get that picture and went on to describe the officer as a rabid squirrel in a cage, according to the Star.
In fact, the Kansas Bureau of Investigations found that there was not enough evidence to have launched the tirade against the local paper - and revoked the police departments warrant.
Still, Cody persisted, preparing charging affidavits on Eric Meyer, Zorn and Herbel - accusing them of violating federal law, even though state prosecutors would not have a role in such cases.
Those charges were never filed.
He then allegedly instructed Newell to delete their text messages.
Kari Newell - who accused the Marion County Record of getting information illegally about her previous DUI - triggered the police raid
She told investigators she shared Codys concerns about their text messages because she feared her ex-husband would accuse her of having an affair with him
But in a motion to dismiss the charges Codys defense attorneys filed last month, they argue that special prosecutors failed to establish a probable cause with their decision to charge Cody through the verbal testimony of a law enforcement officer from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation instead of by a written complaint or indictment, the Spokesman-Review reports.
They argue that CBI Agent John Zamoras 10-page testimony failed to show Cody violated any Kansas law, and claimed he only told Newell to delete their text messages because he was trying to protect her because he didnt want anyone to misconstrue anything.
Newell also later clarified to Zamora that she shared Codys concerns because she was worried her ex-husband might try to accuse her of having an affair with Cody, according to documents obtained by the Spokesman-Review.
The motion goes on to say Zamora was able to obtain the deleted texts, and they were introduced as an exhibit at the hearing, but have not been released publicly, or apparently to Codys legal defense.
At most, Agent Zamoras testimony supports a finding that Mr. Cody instructed Ms. Newell to delete electronic communications between Ms. Newell (on her phone only) and himself sometime between August 11 and August 17, 2023, the filing says.
Even if true, this evidence does not support a crime. For example, Ms. Newell conceded the concern with the text messages was that her ex-husband may have accused the two of having an affair.
In other words, the identified concern was unrelated to any criminal proceeding investigation.
Codys attorney, Sal Intagliata, told reporters he looks forward to the full version of the story coming out through litigation
Cody did not speak during the hearing on Monday, and refused to answer questions as he left the courthouse, the Kansas City Star reports.
He faces presumptive probation, and was allowed to stay out of jail on his own recognizance, Judge Ryan W. Rosauer said during the brief court appearance.
The judge went on to schedule Codys next court hearing, a status conference, for December 16 - granting the cop extra time so his defense team could look through the voluminous discovery in the case before a preliminary hearing, when the judge said he would take up Codys motion to dismiss the charges.
As they left the courthouse, Codys attorney, Sal Intagliata, told reporters he looks forward to the full version of the story coming out through litigation.
The newspaper is now suing city and other officials for the raid, claiming it violated their First Amendment right to press protection and their Fourth Amendment right to unlawful search and seizure
Meanwhile, the newspaper is suing city and other officials - including Cody, the Marion mayor and county sheriff - alleging that the raid violated their First Amendment right to press protection and their Fourth Amendment right to unlawful search and seizure.
They are seeking more than $10million in damages.
This is the type of stuff that, you know, Vladimir Putin does, that Third World dictators do, Meyer previously told the AP.
This is Gestapo tactics from World War II.