A report shows a police chief in Kansas has been removed from his position after leading a raid on a local newspaper.
On Thursday, Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody was placed on administrative leave by Mayor Dave Mayfield. Whether or not he is getting compensated was not something he elaborated on. The August raids have put First Amendment and press freedom issues in Marion in the limelight.
According to a report, the mayor acknowledged to reporters that he had suspended the police chief who conducted a controversial raid on a local newspaper in Kansas.
Marion Mayor Dave Mayfield confirmed through text message on Thursday that he has suspended Chief Gideon Cody. He wouldn’t elaborate on his choice and didn’t disclose if Cody had stopped being paid.
The mayor had planned to wait for the inquiry by the state police but ultimately decided to suspend him immediately.
The raids on the offices of the Marion County Record and the residences of the paper’s founder and a City Council member had been widely condemned. They made the city of Marion a focal point in the debate about the First Amendment’s protection for the press.
A September report showed that a journalist had filed a federal lawsuit against the police commander responsible for the raid.
Joan Meyer, 98, who had been waiting to receive her Meals on Wheels service at the time of the raid, allegedly witnessed the police officers perform their search while crying. The publication claims that the woman’s inability to eat and sleep after the traumatic occurrence contributed to her death.
The raid of the newspaper owner’s home was captured on video that the Marion County Record published.
The Marion County Record was reportedly raided by the city’s five-officer police force and two sheriff’s deputies.
The paper’s publisher and co-owner, Eric Meyer, has described the tragic operation that resulted in the death of his mother and a partner of the publication as an attack on the freedom of the press.
