Findings released on 2023 police raid of Marion County Record newspaper
TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) - Findings were released Monday following an investigation by special prosecutors into a 2023 police raid of a newspaper in Marion, a case that gained national attention, sparked a federal lawsuit and led to the ouster of the city’s police chief.
The final report came from specially appointed prosecutors Marc Bennett and Barry Wilkerson, who investigated the execution of search warrants that were served nearly a year ago at the Marion County Record newspaper.
The report’s findings indicated there was no evidence of criminal conduct by the reporters who were involved in the case.
The findings also showed that former Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody was to be charged in connection with obstruction of the judicial process after the search warrants were executed. According to the report issued by the special prosecutors, the charges against Cody will be sought in Marion District Court.
The report also stated that there was no evidence that Kansas Bureau of Investigation’s Agent Todd Leeds and Special Agent in Charge Bethanie Popejoy were responsible for the issuance or execution of the search warrants.
The report issued Monday morning also noted that there are several civil suits currently pending as a result of the execution of the search warrants at the weekly newspaper in Marion.
The case stemmed from a raid that took place on Aug. 11, 2023, at the Marion County Record newspaper, a weekly publication located in the city of Marion in east-central Kansas.
Cody led the raid on the newspaper’s office, the home of publisher Eric Meyer and the home of a then-city council member who had been critical of the city’s mayor at the time.
In the raid, the Marion Police Department seized servers, computers and personal belongings of reporters and owners at the Marion County Record.
After the raid, law enforcement officials alleged that the newspaper had illegally accessed and disseminated information about a local restaurateur’s driving record.
Constitutional scholars voiced opposition to the raid in the days after it occurred.
“The Fourth Amendment protects against unreasonable searches and seizures,” Kansas Justice Institute Litigation Director Sam MacRoberts said shortly after the raid, “and from what we’ve read so far, the government’s raid on the Marion County Record was just that — unreasonable,”
Marion County Record co-owner, Joan Meyer, 98, died the day after the raid, and staff of the newspaper have attributed her passing to stress from the raids.
A former reporter for the newspaper, Deb Gruver, agreed to accept $235,000 to settle part of her federal lawsuit over the police raid on the paper that made the small community the focus of a national debate over press freedoms.
The settlement removed the former police chief in Marion from the lawsuit filed by former Marion County Record reporter Deb Gruver, but it doesn’t apply to two other officials she sued over the raid: the Marion County sheriff and the county’s prosecutor. Gruver’s lawsuit is among five federal lawsuits filed over the raid against the city, the county and eight current or former elected officials or law enforcement officers.
Bennett, the Sedgwick County district attorney, and Wilkerson, the Riley County attorney, agreed to serve as special prosecutors in the case at the request of Joel Ensey, the elected Marion County attorney.
As special prosecutors, Bennett and Wilkerson were to review events that led to the issuance and e execution of search warrants on Aug. 11, 2023, in Marion.
The Kansas Bureau of Investigation took the lead in the case less than a week after the raid occurred.
In November 2023, it requested the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to take over as the lead investigative agency in an effort to ensure impartiality and transparency.
Check wibw.com later for more information as it becomes available.
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