Former Marion police Chief Gideon Cody,
apparently proud to emulate Nazi tactics

The wheels of justice ground slow, but grind they do: In August 2023 the entire police department of Marion, Kansas, performed a Gestapo-like raid of a local newspaper’s offices as well as the homes the town’s vice mayor, the newspaper’s 98-year-old owner Joan Meyer (resulting in her death the next day from a heart attack), and one reporter.

All the evidence suggested the police chief, Gideon Cody, had performed the raid as a personal favor to a local businesswoman, Kari Newell, who was worried that newspaper might publish a story about her arrest for driving while intoxicated and without a license. Newell and Cody then worked together to use the police and a local judge, Laura Viar, to harass and hopefully destroy a newspaper. The newspaper survived, but their actions ended up killing its 98-year-old founder.

The public outrage was instantanous. Cody was soon suspended, and if Newell wished to keep her history out of the papers this raid was exactly the wrong way to do it. The story went national, exposing her drunk driving history to the world. Meanwhile five different federal lawsuits were filed against Cody and various other county and city officials. The reporter, Debbie Gruver, also resigned from the newspaper, saying she no longer felt comfortable in the Marion community.

It now appears that Cody, who officially resigned in October 2023, has now been charged with a crime in connection with the raid.

The former police chief who launched a raid on a Kansas newspaper office and two homes is expected to be charged with obstruction of judicial process, according to two special prosecutors who released their findings on the case Monday.

Nearly one year after the unprecedented raids, which made national news headlines, two special prosecutors assigned to review the case have determined no other crimes were committed. The case was presented to the prosecutors based on findings from both the Kansas Bureau of Investigation and Colorado Bureau of Investigation.

It appears that these prosecutors found there was no grounds for charging Cody for the raids, but his actions allowed them to charge him with obstruction of judicial process, though no specifics of that charge have as yet been released.

Most importantly, the prosecutors concluded without doubt that no crime of any kind had been committed by any of the people accused by Cody. He thus had no cause for doing any search, other than his own personal vendatta.

Meanwhile the judge who approved the search warrant, Laura Viar, managed to escape discipline for her actions. In the secret proceedings before the Kansas Commission on Judicial Conduct, her defense made her appear quite incompetent and untrustworthy, since it was clear she approved a warrant when there was no evidence of any probable cause for a search. The commission let her off the hook, but the public outrage against her and the commission still lingers.

The lawsuits still have to wind their way through the courts. And the life of Joan Meyer can never be recovered. Nor can the reporter Gruver live and work in Marion any longer. But it is now very plain that in Kansas there will be harsh consequences if another police chief tries to abuse his power as Cody did. In this sense justice has certainly been done, and the rule of law made whole again.

May we see this happen nationwide, in the many numerous places where in the past five years government officials have repeatedly abused their power. That the rule of law could be defend this time tells us it is possible everywhere.