Kansas prosecutors have filed a charge of interference with the judicial process against former Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody, alleging he tampered with an investigation into his department's raid on a local newspaper office last year.

Marion police raided the Marion County Record and the homes of two of its employees, including its publisher Eric Meyer, in August 2023 based on a search warrant that alleged the paper, Meyer, and reporter Phyllis Zorn had committed identity theft or other computer crimes to verify the authenticity of a business owner's driving record.

An Aug. 5 report by two special prosecutors, Marc Bennett and Barry Wilkerson, cleared the paper and its employees of any wrongdoing and concluded that there was enough evidence to charge Cody for tampering with the investigation into the raid. Cody resigned from the department last October.

“Small town familiarity explains but does not excuse the inadequate investigation that gave rise to the search warrant applications in this matter,” prosecutors said in their report.

“A few minutes on the phone with the Kansas Department of Revenue was, functionally, the entirety of the investigation. It would have taken longer to draft (and re-draft) the warrant applications........

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