NATIONAL NEWS

The police chief who led a raid of a small Kansas newspaper has been suspended

Sep 30, 2023, 1:30 PM

The police chief who led a highly criticized raid of a small Kansas newspaper has been suspended, the mayor confirmed to The Associated Press on Saturday.

Marion Mayor Dave Mayfield in a text said he suspended Chief Gideon Cody on Thursday. He declined to discuss his decision further and did not say whether Cody was still being paid.

Voice messages and emails from the AP seeking comment from Cody’s lawyers were not immediately returned Saturday.

The Aug. 11 searches of the Marion County Record’s office and the homes of its publisher and a City Council member have been sharply criticized, putting Marion at the center of a debate over the press protections offered by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Cody’s suspension is a reversal for the mayor, who previously said he would wait for results from a state police investigation before taking action.

Vice-Mayor Ruth Herbel, whose home was also raided Aug. 11, praised Cody’s suspension as “the best thing that can happen to Marion right now” as the central Kansas town of about 1,900 people struggles to move forward under the national spotlight.

“We can’t duck our heads until it goes away, because it’s not going to go away until we do something about it,” Herbel said.

Cody has said little publicly since the raids other than posting a defense of them on the police department’s Facebook page. In court documents he filed to get the search warrants, he argued that he had probable cause to believe the newspaper and Herbel, whose home was also raided, had violated state laws against identity theft or computer crimes.

The raids came after a local restaurant owner accused the newspaper of illegally accessing information about her. A spokesman for the agency that maintains those records has said the newspaper’s online search that a reporter did was likely legal even though the reporter needed personal information about the restaurant owner that a tipster provided to look up her driving record.

The newspaper’s publisher Eric Meyer has said the identity theft allegations simply provided a convenient excuse for the search after his reporters had been digging for background information on Cody, who was appointed this summer.

Legal experts believe the raid on the newspaper violated a federal privacy law or a state law shielding journalists from having to identify sources or turn over unpublished material to law enforcement.

Video of the raid on the home of publisher Eric Meyer shows how distraught his 98-year-old mother became as officers searched through their belongings. Meyer said he believes that stress contributed to the death of his mother, Joan Meyer, a day later.

Another reporter last month filed a federal lawsuit against the police chief over the raid.

National News

FILE - The Supreme Court is pictured, June 30, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)Credit: A...

Associated Press

The Supreme Court opens its new term with election disputes in the air but not yet on the docket

WASHINGTON (AP) — Transgender rights, the regulation of “ghost guns” and the death penalty highlight the Supreme Court’s election-season term that begins Monday, with the prospect of the court’s intervention in voting disputes lurking in the background. The justices are returning to the bench at a time of waning public confidence in the court and […]

10 minutes ago

A statue of Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump is set up on a truck ahea...

Associated Press

Trump returns to site of Pennsylvania assassination attempt for huge rally with Vance and Musk

BUTLER, Pa. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump plans to return Saturday to the site where a gunman tried to assassinate him in July, setting aside what are now near-constant worries for his physical safety in order to fulfill a promise — “really an obligation,” he said recently — to the people of Butler, Pennsylvania. […]

8 hours ago

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a rally at the Dort Fina...

Associated Press

Harris is heading to North Carolina to survey Helene’s aftermath one day after Trump visited

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris is heading to North Carolina on Saturday as the state recovers from Hurricane Helene, arriving there one day after a visit by Republican Donald Trump, who is spreading false claims about the federal response to the disaster. Earlier in the week, Harris was in Georgia, where she […]

9 hours ago

Texas lawmakers meet with Robert Roberson at a prison in Livingston, Texas, on Friday, Sept. 27, 20...

Associated Press

A Texas execution is renewing calls for clemency. It’s rarely granted

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Texas man set to die this month is at the center of another push for clemency in the U.S., this time backed by several GOP lawmakers and bestselling author John Grisham, who say a father’s 2002 conviction for killing his infant daughter deserves a second look. Their pleas to spare […]

9 hours ago

FILE - San Francisco Mayor London Breed delivers her State of the City address at the Pier 27 cruis...

Associated Press

San Francisco’s first Black female mayor is in a pricey battle for a second term

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — When London Breed was elected as San Francisco’s first Black woman mayor, it was a pinch-me moment for a poor girl from public housing whose ascension showed that no dream was impossible in the progressive, compassionate and equitable city. But the honeymoon was short-lived as a COVID-19 pandemic shuttered stores and […]

9 hours ago

Associated Press

Idaho state senator tells Native American candidate ‘go back where you came from’ in forum

KENDRICK, Idaho (AP) — Tensions rose during a bipartisan forum this week after an audience question about discrimination reportedly led an Idaho state senator to angrily tell a Native American candidate to “go back where you came from.” Republican Sen. Dan Foreman left the event early after the outburst and later denied making any racist […]

10 hours ago

The police chief who led a raid of a small Kansas newspaper has been suspended