The police chief who led a extremely criticized raid of a small Kansas newspaper has been suspended, the mayor confirmed to The Related Press on Saturday.
Marion Mayor Dave Mayfield in a textual content stated he suspended Chief Gideon Cody on Thursday.
He declined to debate his resolution additional and didn’t say whether or not Cody was nonetheless being paid.
Voice messages and emails from the AP in search of remark from Cody’s attorneys weren’t instantly returned Saturday.
The Aug. 11 searches of the Marion County Document’s workplace and the houses of its writer and a Metropolis Council member have been sharply criticized, placing Marion on the heart of a debate over the press protections provided by the First Modification to the US Structure.
Cody’s suspension is a reversal for the mayor, who beforehand stated he would look ahead to outcomes from a state police investigation earlier than taking motion.
Vice-Mayor Ruth Herbel, whose dwelling was additionally raided Aug. 11, praised Cody’s suspension as “the perfect factor that may occur to Marion proper now” because the central Kansas city of about 1,900 individuals struggles to maneuver ahead underneath the nationwide highlight.
“We will’t duck our heads till it goes away, as a result of it’s not going to go away till we do one thing about it,” Herbel stated.
Cody has stated little publicly because the raids apart from posting a protection of them on the police division’s Fb web page.
In courtroom paperwork he filed to get the search warrants, he argued that he had possible trigger to consider the newspaper and Herbel, whose dwelling was additionally raided, had violated state legal guidelines towards id theft or pc crimes.
The raids got here after an area restaurant proprietor accused the newspaper of illegally accessing details about her.
A spokesman for the company that maintains these data has stated the newspaper’s on-line search {that a} reporter did was probably authorized although the reporter wanted private details about the restaurant proprietor {that a} tipster supplied to search for her driving report.
The newspaper’s writer Eric Meyer has stated the id theft allegations merely supplied a handy excuse for the search after his reporters had been digging for background info on Cody, who was appointed this summer time.
Authorized specialists consider the raid on the newspaper violated a federal privateness regulation or a state regulation shielding journalists from having to determine sources or flip over unpublished materials to regulation enforcement.
Video of the raid on the house of writer Eric Meyer reveals how distraught his 98-year-old mom grew to become as officers searched by way of their belongings.
Meyer stated he believes that stress contributed to the dying of his mom, Joan Meyer, a day later.
One other reporter final month filed a federal lawsuit towards the police chief over the raid.
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