The Raid

Summary

Criminal Podcast Episode Summary: "The Raid"

Release Date: January 31, 2025

Introduction

In the gripping episode titled "The Raid" from the acclaimed podcast Criminal, host Phoebe Judge delves into a harrowing story of journalistic integrity, police overreach, and personal tragedy in the small town of Marion, Kansas. This episode not only recounts the events surrounding the raid on the Marion County Record but also draws parallels with a historical incident involving the Stanford Daily, highlighting the persistent tensions between the press and law enforcement.

---

Background: The Marion County Record and Eric Meyer
Timestamp: 01:07 - 03:19

The episode begins with Phoebe Judge introducing Eric Meyer, the editor and publisher of the Marion County Record, a local newspaper in Marion, Kansas, with a subscriber base of approximately 4,000. Eric assumed his role in 2021, inheriting a legacy from his parents who had run the paper since 1998 to prevent its acquisition by a larger newspaper chain. The Marion County Record prides itself on covering all local happenings, from minor traffic incidents to significant local government actions. Eric recounts his lifelong association with the paper, stating:

Eric Meyer [04:21]: "I started doing menial things like stapling. We had a job printing operation... I became the vacation relief for my parents."

---

Investigative Reporting and Rising Tensions
Timestamp: 04:43 - 09:33

The narrative intensifies as the Record begins investigating the newly appointed police chief, Gideon Cody. Initially hired with a modest salary of $60,000 and one of three candidates, Cody's past in Kansas City came under scrutiny when multiple sources suggested he was on the verge of demotion due to inappropriate behavior, including "insulting and sexist comments to a female officer." Reporter Deb Groover spearheaded the inquiry into Cody's background. However, when confronted by Cody, the newspaper was threatened with a defamation lawsuit if they proceeded with their findings.

The tension escalates during an open forum hosted by a local Congressman on August 1, 2023, where Carrie Newell, owner of a local coffee shop, violently ejected Eric Meyer and his colleague Phyllis Zorn, citing her disdain for the media's presence. This incident led to a tip received by the Record about Newell's alleged illicit driving history, prompting further investigation.

Eric Meyer [08:00]: "We decided we didn't want to get in the middle of a divorce, but we were a little concerned if the police were aware of this and not enforcing the law."

---

The Raid: A War on the Press
Timestamp: 09:33 - 17:03

Four days after the open forum, on August 11, 2023, police arrived at Eric Meyer's home armed with a warrant claiming they were searching for evidence related to identity theft and unlawful computer activities. The warrant extended to the newspaper's office, involving at least seven officers led by Chief Gideon Cody. The raid was intrusive, confiscating laptops, hard drives, personal devices, and even the paper’s backup drives.

Joanne Meyer, Eric’s 98-year-old mother, found herself in the midst of the chaos at her own home. The security footage captures her desperate pleas:

Joanne Meyer [12:46]: "Don't you touch any of that stuff, ma'am. This is my house."

The raid lasted over two and a half hours, with officers aggressively searching the premises, later mocking the situation by hosting a pizza party and making dismissive comments about the journalists involved.

Despite the traumatic experience, the Marion County Record published the following week's edition under the resilient headline:

Headline: "Seized but Not Silenced"

This defiant act underscored the newspaper’s commitment to truth and transparency, bolstered by overwhelming community support that surged the paper’s circulation to the 8th largest in Kansas.

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Legal and Community Aftermath
Timestamp: 17:03 - 27:29

In the wake of the raid, the police department initially defended their actions via a Facebook post, arguing that the Privacy Protection Act did not shield journalists involved in wrongdoing. However, as legal battles ensued, the Marion County Attorney withdrew the search warrant, citing insufficient evidence. Nonetheless, the police had already made copies of the confiscated data, leading to their destruction despite court orders.

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) took over the investigation, ultimately charging Chief Gideon Cody with felony obstruction of justice. Investigations revealed that Cody had coerced Carrie Newell into deleting incriminating text messages, actions he later regretted.

Eric Meyer reflects on the impact:

Eric Meyer [33:42]: "The issue here is not just the raid. It's the idea that law enforcement can be weaponized politically, personally to attack journalists who report things that people don't want to have reported."

---

Historical Parallel: The 1971 Stanford Daily Raid
Timestamp: 19:35 - 25:29

To contextualize the Marion incident, Phoebe Judge introduces journalist Felicity Barringer, who recounts a similar event from 1971 when the Palo Alto police raided the Stanford Daily amidst coverage of student protests. Despite initial legal victories favoring press freedom, the Supreme Court ultimately ruled in favor of the police, deeming the raid constitutional. This landmark case, criticized by figures like Walter Cronkite as a move towards a "remote, totalitarian state," spurred the enactment of the Privacy Protection Act in 1980, which restricts law enforcement from using warrants to search newsrooms.

Joanne Meyer [25:29]: "Since the Privacy Protection act passed in 1980, news from raids have been rare until the raid on the Marion County Record."

---

Conclusion: A Legacy of Resilience and Advocacy
Timestamp: 27:29 - 36:42

The episode culminates with reflections on the enduring struggle for press freedom and the personal toll on those involved. Joanne Meyer’s valiant stand during the raid became a symbol of resistance, earning her and Eric posthumous honors, including induction into the Kansas Press Association Hall of Fame.

Eric Meyer emphasizes the broader implications:

Eric Meyer [35:17]: "The issue here is not just the raid. It's the idea that law enforcement can be weaponized politically, personally to attack journalists who report things that people don't want to have reported."

The story of the Marion County Record serves as a poignant reminder of the fragile balance between law enforcement and the freedom of the press, underlining the vital role that local journalism plays in maintaining transparency and accountability within communities.

---

Key Takeaways

1. Press Freedom Under Threat: The raid on the Marion County Record exemplifies the lengths to which authorities may go to silence investigative journalism, posing significant threats to democratic accountability.

2. Legal Protections are Crucial: Historical parallels with the Stanford Daily raid highlight the importance of legal safeguards like the Privacy Protection Act in shielding journalists from unwarranted governmental intrusion.

3. Community Resilience: The unwavering support from the community following the raid underscores the essential role that local journalism plays and the public’s commitment to maintaining free and independent press.

4. Personal Sacrifice: The tragic loss of Joanne Meyer underscores the profound personal costs that often accompany the fight for truth and justice.

Notable Quotes

• Eric Meyer [08:00]: "We decided we didn't want to get in the middle of a divorce, but we were a little concerned if the police were aware of this and not enforcing the law."

• Joanne Meyer [12:46]: "Don't you touch any of that stuff, ma'am. This is my house."

• Eric Meyer [33:42]: "The issue here is not just the raid. It's the idea that law enforcement can be weaponized politically, personally to attack journalists who report things that people don't want to have reported."

• Joanne Meyer [25:29]: "Since the Privacy Protection act passed in 1980, news from raids have been rare until the raid on the Marion County Record."

---

Final Thoughts

"The Raid" is a compelling exploration of the intersection between journalism and law enforcement, shedding light on the ongoing struggles to preserve press freedom in the face of political and personal vendettas. Through meticulous storytelling and firsthand accounts, Criminal underscores the indispensable role of local newspapers in safeguarding democracy and championing the truth.

Transcript

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[Seagal Samuel]

Explain it To Me we treat every single question you ask us with the utmost professionalism. What was your initial reaction when you read that question?

[Phoebe Judge]

Honestly, like, my gut initial reaction was like, oh, honey.

[Seagal Samuel]

Like, yeah. I'm kind of like, okay, all right.

[Gideon Cody]

I'm glad you said that.

[Seagal Samuel]

There are no bad questions, but there are some that are really hard to answer. This week on Explain it to Me, Seagal Samuel tells us why those are the ones she gravitates towards. New episodes every Wednesday, wherever you get your podcasts.

[Phoebe Judge]

On August 11, 2023, police arrived at the home of a man named Eric Meyer in Marion, Kansas.

[Eric Meyer]

I was just sitting there at the house checking email, doing normal stuff, and they came to the door.

[Phoebe Judge]

What did they say they wanted?

[Eric Meyer]

They said they were serving a warrant.

[Phoebe Judge]

Eric Meyer is the editor and publisher of a local newspaper, the Marion County Record. Marion is a small town about an hour north of Wichita, and at the time the paper had about 4,000 subscribers. Eric took over as editor of the newspaper in 2021 after working as a reporter and editor and as a journalism professor for decades.

[Eric Meyer]

This is purely a retirement g.

[Phoebe Judge]

When the police came to his door, Eric asked to look at their warrant. The warrant said they were searching for evidence of identity theft and, quote, unlawful acts concerning computers. At the same time, police were also searching the newspaper's office blocks away. They searched the house in the newspaper office for several hours. At least seven officers were involved in the raid, including the chief of police, a man named Gideon Cody. They eventually started taking things as evidence. Eric Meyer's laptop, a hard drive, his mother's computer, her router.

[Eric Meyer]

Down at the office, they took the reporters cell phones or personal cell phones and all the computers that we used to in the news operation, along with our file server, along with our backup drives. They'd been bragging around to other officers that this was going to be the biggest raid in the history of Marion County. They brought every officer they'd had. They even brought extra on. They brought a state fire marshal to come in as extra help to do the raiding.

[Phoebe Judge]

Had you ever heard of the police raiding a newspaper office before?

[Eric Meyer]

No. No, it's unheard of. No one ever expected anything like this to ever happen.

[Phoebe Judge]

I'm Phoebe Judge. This is criminal. Eric Meyer and his parents bought the Marion county record in 1998 to keep it from being sold to a newspaper chain. His father had worked at the paper since 1948 as an editor, and his mother was a columnist and editor. Eric started working at the paper when he was a kid.

[Eric Meyer]

I started doing menial things like stapling. We had a job printing operation, and I would staple and trim things. And then I was about sixth or seventh grade, I started developing all the pictures and making all the. In those days, we had to make engravings of pictures. I did that all through high school. I became the vacation relief for my parents. And actually my grandmother, who had retired from the Wichita Eagle, was also working there. So I guess this is a family retirement thing.

[Phoebe Judge]

And what, what does the paper typically cover?

[Eric Meyer]

Everything local. If it happens in Marion county, we cover it. So anything that happens from, you know, cars hitting deer, chicken dinner type stuff, the honor roll at the schools, everything that happens in local government.

[Phoebe Judge]

That includes reporting on local police.

[Eric Meyer]

We've tried to be aggressive at this. There was. There was a time when this was sort of, oh, boosterism, cheerleading for the community. But we've tried to do a different approach and really bring serious journalism to the. To the newspaper.

[Phoebe Judge]

When Gideon Cody was sworn in as the new police chief of Marion, the Record covered it, writing that he would make $60,000 a year as police chief and that he was one of three candidates who'd interviewed for the position. Before that, he'd been working as a police captain in Kansas City.

[Eric Meyer]

Soon as he was appointed was. We started hearing from people he'd worked with. We had numerous sources, more than a dozen sources telling us that he was in trouble in Kansas City. He was about to be demoted.

[Phoebe Judge]

Their sources said that he was under internal review by the police department for allegedly making insulting and sexist comments to a female officer. Reporter Deb Groover at the Marion County Record started working on a story about Gideon Cody's past. Did he know that you were looking into that? The Record was looking into his backstory.

[Eric Meyer]

Oh, yes, he knew and threatened to sue us if we ran it. I. I regret now that we didn't. We. We didn' we didn't have a document. We didn't have a name source. We had multiple sources. And some people would say, that's enough to go on, but we were Wanting to get something that was on the record. And he had been threatening us with a. A defamation suit if we ran it.

[Phoebe Judge]

A few months later, on August 1, 2023, a local Congressman held an open forum at a coffee shop in Marion. Police Chief Gideon Cody was there. So was Eric Meyer and another reporter from the Marion County Record. The coffee shop was owned by a woman named Carrie Newell.

[Eric Meyer]

She ordered Gideon Cody to come over and throw us out, saying she didn't want us there. She reserved the right to refuse service to anyone.

[Phoebe Judge]

Why didn't she want you there?

[Eric Meyer]

She didn't like the media, she said. She later said it was just us, not the media. But at the time, she said no media allowed. We were the only media that were there and had us thrown out.

[Phoebe Judge]

Carrie Newell later said that the Marion County Record has, quote, a long standing reputation for twisting and contorting comments within our community. A court document later said that Carrie Newell said that people were, quote, high fiving her for making the reporters leave. After the forum, the Marion County Police Department posted about the event on Facebook, writing, thank you, Carrie Newell, for the invite. The next day, Eric Meyer and Marion County Record reporter Phyllis Zorn wrote about what happened in an article with the headline Media Ejected. At Open Forum that day, they got a Facebook message.

[Eric Meyer]

We received this tip that said that you know that Carrie Newell has been driving illegally for almost 20 years.

[Phoebe Judge]

Reporter Phyllis Zorn had received a screenshot of a letter from the Kansas Department of Revenue. It outlined all of the steps Carrie Newell would need to follow to get her license reinstated. She'd lost it after a 2008 drunk driving conviction. The person who sent the tip also said police were aware that Kerry Newell did not have a valid driver's license and was driving anyway. Eric and Phyllis wanted to figure out whether the document was real.

[Eric Meyer]

So we called the state.

[Phoebe Judge]

Phyllis Zorn called the Kansas Department of Revenue, also known as the kdor, and asked if she could find the document on their site. The person on the phone told her how to do it.

[Eric Meyer]

So we got it and we verified that it was in fact a legitimate document. And then we decided whether we're going to use it or not.

[Phoebe Judge]

The Facebook tip had come from someone who was friends with Carrie Newell's soon to be ex husband.

[Eric Meyer]

We decided we didn't want to get in the middle of a divorce, but we were a little concerned if the police were aware of this and not enforcing the law. So I wrote a letter to the police chief and to the sheriff saying, we got this document, we verified it's true, we don't plan to use it in any way, shape or form. But you should be aware that there's an allegation that officers are ignoring this and allowing her to drive.

[Phoebe Judge]

The vice mayor of Marion was also sent the same document on Facebook. She forwarded it along to the city administrator because Carrie Newell was applying for a liquor license.

[Eric Meyer]

The city administrator said in response to that, we're not going to investigate this at all. It's up to the state to worry about liquor licenses. The city police department's going to do nothing with this story. That was Friday. Somewhere. Monday morning following that, someone changed their mind.

[Phoebe Judge]

On Monday, Police Chief Gideon Cody sent Carrie Newell a text message.

[Gideon Cody]

Said, this is Chief Cody. I need you to contact me back as soon as possible. We believe you've been the victim of a crime.

[Phoebe Judge]

Carrie Newell speaking with a Kansas City TV reporter.

[Gideon Cody]

And he said they went to the KDOR site and they accessed your case files and had downloaded that information. I said, who is they? And he said, phyllis Zorn.

[Phoebe Judge]

That night, Carrie Newell went to a city council meeting. Eric Meyer was there, too. And Carrie Newell formally accused the newspaper of stealing her information by illegally accessing the state's website. She said that not only had they stolen her information, but they'd shared it with the city's vice mayor, Ruth Herbol.

[Gideon Cody]

It was brought to my attention today that my private and personal information that was illegally obtained by a local report was shared with council member Ruth Herbel. Ruth then took it upon herself to share that information with others. And I'm very disappointed that as a representative of our community in your elected position, that you would behave so negligently and maliciously. And I really hope that your team members here today take note of exactly how vital your behavior.

[Phoebe Judge]

Eric Meyer asked to speak next, and.

[Eric Meyer]

I got up afterward and said, no, that is not what happened. I will tell you that it was material that was provided to us and we chose not to disseminate it any further.

[Phoebe Judge]

Four days later is when police knocked on his door with their warrant to search his house and the newspaper office. In the warrant, Gideon Cody had written that downloading the document from the state's website involved either impersonating Carrie Newell or. Or lying about the reasons why the record was being sought.

[Eric Meyer]

I informed them that I thought this was a setup deal, that the police chief was aware we had information on him and he was. Had animus toward us.

[Phoebe Judge]

Your mother was. Was also at the house when the police arrived. How did she react?

[Eric Meyer]

She actually was in her bedroom when they arrived. She came out of her bedroom. She was very upset that they were there and became increasingly upset.

[Phoebe Judge]

In home security footage, Eric's mother, Joanne Meyer, is wearing a housecoat, holding on to a Walker. She's 98.

[Joanne Meyer]

Don't you touch any of that stuff, ma'am. This is my house.

[Phoebe Judge]

There are six police officers in her living room. One is holding a flashlight, looking at a desk. What's he doing over there?

[Joanne Meyer]

Going to the papers. How many computers do you have in the house? I'm not going to tell you. Get out of my way. I want to see what they're doing.

[Eric Meyer]

Well, they're working.

[Joanne Meyer]

I don't care what they're doing.

[Eric Meyer]

You can go on through if you want.

[Joanne Meyer]

What are you doing? Those are personal papers.

[Eric Meyer]

They were just standing there guarding her so that she couldn't touch anything. They were there for two and a half hours.

[Joanne Meyer]

I may be 90 some years old, but I know what's going on. And what's going on is illegal as hell.

[Eric Meyer]

She started comparing what they were doing to Nazi tactics. And she's not one who would use the word Nazi casually, but she wanted to know why they were allowed to do this, why there were police in her house. Eventually, by the end of the day, there were seven officers in her house. Weeks earlier, they had had a case where they were searching for evidence in a rape case, a child rape case. They went into a guy's house who was the suspect of known to have firearms in his house. They took two people. Why they needed seven to go after a 98 year old woman to try to get her computer. I, I do not understand other than the fact it was designed to embarrass and harass and, and put us in our place.

[Phoebe Judge]

At the newspapers offices, police told reporters they needed to wait outside while they conducted their search. Reporter Deb Groover later said when the police initially came in, she thought there might have been a bomb threat. When she realized what was happening, she tried to call Eric Meyer. She said that Gideon Cody told her she couldn't call anyone and that he grabbed her phone out of her hand. Deb Groover was not involved in the reporting on Carrie Newell and said so to Gideon Cody. But she had been the reporter asking questions about his past.

[Eric Meyer]

When they were searching the newsroom, they got to her desk and an officer was going through her desk, Deb Groover's desk. And found the investigative files we had on Gideon Cody. And calls out to Gideon Cody, you should come look at this. And shows Gideon Cody the file. We had the first page of which was the LinkedIn profile of our main source. So he knew who it was. He looked at it and put it back in the desk drawer.

[Phoebe Judge]

On body camera footage, you can hear Gideon Cody saying, keep a personal file on me. I don't care. The sheriff's office threw a pizza party for the officers after the raid. Gideon Cody left his body camera running during the party and can be heard telling the Marion county sheriff that taking the phone out of Deb Groover's hand, quote, made my day. The police had also raided a third location, Vice mayor Ruth Herbel's home, where they seized her laptop and cell phone. You can hear her reacting in body camera footage.

[Joanne Meyer]

This doesn't put a very good light on the police department.

[Phoebe Judge]

After the raid, Eric Meyer says his mother, Joanne Meyer, wasn't doing well.

[Eric Meyer]

She just sat in a chair and kept talking over and over again. Where were all the good people? I've lived in this town for 98 years. I've spent 60 years working on the newspaper. What was it all for?

[Phoebe Judge]

The next day, Joanne Meyer had a heart attack and died. She'd been working for the paper for almost 60 years, writing her column up until her death. Were you able to publish a paper that week after the raid?

[Eric Meyer]

Yeah. Oh, there. There was absolutely no way we were not going to publish a newspaper that week. That would have been defeat.

[Phoebe Judge]

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[Joanne Meyer]

Here we go again.

[Phoebe Judge]

Felicity Barringer is a journalist. She's worked for newspapers like the Washington Post and the New York Times, and.

[Joanne Meyer]

I was the editor of the Stanford Daily in 1971 when the Palo Alto police searched our offices.

[Phoebe Judge]

The Stanford Daily is the student run newspaper at Stanford University. In the spring of 1971, the paper was covering two protests, one after a Mexican American professor was denied tenure and one after a black janitor had been fired.

[Joanne Meyer]

Those protests coalesced into a major demonstration that took over an adjunct building at the medical school.

[Phoebe Judge]

The Stanford dailies photographer was there and took photos of a clash between police and protesters. He took photos as police entered the.

[Joanne Meyer]

Building and the protesters burst out swinging clubs, beat the officers and escaped out the other side.

[Phoebe Judge]

Thirteen police officers were injured. At the time, the staff of the Stanford Daily had a policy about its photographs and how they could be used. They'd print any photo that was newsworthy, but they said, we will not store.

[Joanne Meyer]

Photos so that either prosecutors or defense attorneys could use our material in court.

[Phoebe Judge]

A few days after the protest on April 12, 1971, Felicity Baringer had just left an English class and was about to walk into the newspaper office and.

[Joanne Meyer]

I was met at the glass doors by one of the top editors who the first thing he said was, I couldn't do anything. They had a search warrant.

[Phoebe Judge]

The Palo Alto police were inside their offices. A judge had issued the warrant because he believed that the newspaper had photos that would show who had hurt the police officers.

[Joanne Meyer]

When I moved into the office, I could see people in, you know, the uniforms of Palo Alto police officers, although there was at least one plainclothes officer going through the office, looking at desks and going particularly to our dark room and looking at all of our photographs and negatives. It was. It was an odd. I would say it was a terrible feeling, but it was just an odd feeling. It's a feeling of violation. This is our space, this is our material. These are our notes. You're going through drawers. I've never been burglarized, but I imagine the sense of violation is analogous. This is our stuff that we do our work with. What are you doing here and what gives you the right to do it?

[Phoebe Judge]

Walter Cronkite said about the raid, this sounds like some remote, totalitarian state. Later, the Palo Alto police said they'd gotten a search warrant rather than a subpoena because they worried that the newspaper staff would destroy photos if they knew the police wanted them. In the end, the police rating the Stanford Daily didn't find any incriminating photos of protesters at all. The staff of the newspaper reached out to a Stanford law professor for help.

[Joanne Meyer]

We were just thinking the courts are a way to make this kind of behavior illegal. And so we thought that was our obligation, was to make sure it didn't happen again.

[Phoebe Judge]

The paper filed a lawsuit against the Palo Alto police chief, James Zurcher. They argued that by entering their offices with a search warrant, their First Amendment rights to free speech and free press and their Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure were being violated.

[Joanne Meyer]

And I followed it closely and was particularly happy with the initial district court decision which agreed with us on our first and Fourth Amendment claims and the Court of Appeals decision that essentially said this should not be done. Freedom of the press is too important.

[Phoebe Judge]

The Supreme Court reviewed the case in 1978. James Zercher, the police chief, gave an interview to the Stanford Daily and said that if the Supreme Court reversed the lower court's decision and decided in favor of the police, quote, I would certainly give a lot of thought to any third party searches in the future. In the end, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Palo Alto police, deciding that using a warrant to search the newspaper was constitutional.

[Joanne Meyer]

It was extremely disappointing.

[Phoebe Judge]

The Boston Globe called the decision, quote, a first step toward a police state. There was so much outcry that then President Jimmy Carter encouraged Congress to take up the issue. In 1980, Congress passed the Privacy Protection act, which barred law enforcement from using warrants to search newsrooms in almost all.

[Joanne Meyer]

Situations, if you want information from a newspaper, you send a subpoena and the subpoena can be challenged in court. If newspapers can be searched by law enforcement, trust is completely undermined. Trust between the newspaper and its sources, trust between the newspaper and its readers. The newspaper becomes, in some ways, even if involuntarily, an agent of government. And that is something that can never happen if a newspaper is going to have the integrity and the ability to provide information that the citizenry needs.

[Phoebe Judge]

Since the Privacy Protection act passed in 1980, news from raids have been rare until the raid on the Marion County Record. We'll be right back.

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[Eric Meyer]

Did you say Lyme disease is a.

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[Joanne Meyer]

I probably did say that.

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[Joanne Meyer]

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[Phoebe Judge]

Five days after the raid, the Marion County Record put out its weekly paper, the first since the police raided its newsroom.

[Eric Meyer]

It took two all nighters. We didn't even have our nameplate. You know, the thing on the front of the paper that says Marion County Record? We didn't even have that. We had to recreate everything. We pulled computers out of an old storage closet and it's a fancy name for junk room. And we had old Windows XP computers that we set up in a temporary network. The one thing we still had was that we'd posted a PDF as we always do on the website of our paper. But it was a low res PDF, so we pulled it down and tried to grab some material from it. Our normal deadline is midnight on Tuesday night. We were there till 6:30 before we got the paper sent out to our printer. 6:30am but we made it.

[Phoebe Judge]

And what was the headline?

[Eric Meyer]

Seized but not silenced.

[Phoebe Judge]

The day after the raid, the Marion Police Department wrote a Facebook post defending their search, acknowledging the federal Privacy Protection act, but suggesting it doesn't give special protection, quote, when there is reason to believe the journalist is taking part in the underlying wrongdoing. The newspaper's lawyer, Bernie Rhodes, responded in a letter to Police Chief Gideon Cody. Your characterization of the law is wrong. Here he is speaking with kcur, a public radio station in Kansas City.

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The only justification they've given is what's on their Facebook page, which is that they were looking at a criminal suspect. But again, you're a criminal suspect only if reporting is a crime. And in this country it's not in videos.

[Phoebe Judge]

At the time you said, this will make national news and the police didn't seem to believe you.

[Eric Meyer]

Oh no, they laughed at it. And later on in body cams, they're joking about, oh yeah, sure, he thinks it's gonna make national news. Well, it made intern news.

[Phoebe Judge]

On the Wednesday after the search, the Marion county attorney said that he was withdrawing the search warrant that had been used for the raid. He said that there was, quote, insufficient evidence for it. A judge ordered that the items the police had taken be returned. When the newspaper's lawyer realized that the sheriff's office had made a copy of data from their hard drive and hadn't returned that copy, they went back to.

[Eric Meyer]

Court and the judge basically wrote back, said, you didn't listen to my ruling. My ruling said, return it now. Now means now. And so they wouldn't give it to us, but they destroyed it. So we had a ceremony in which the. The sheriff wanted no part of it. So the undersheriff took a hammer and a chisel and broke the hard drive into little bitty pieces, put them in a plastic bag and gave them to us.

[Phoebe Judge]

By then, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, or kbi, had announced that it was taking over, leading the investigation from the local police. In a statement, the director of the KBI said, no one is above the law, whether a public official or representative of the media. But a spokesperson from the Kansas Department of Revenue, which runs the website that reporter Phyllis Zorn accessed, said that it was legal to check the status of someone's license on Their website that it's, quote, public facing and anyone can use it. Almost a year later, In August of 2024, an investigative report was released.

[Eric Meyer]

The report that came out in August basically said, first of all, we'd never committed a crime.

[Phoebe Judge]

The report, prepared by two special prosecutors, found that reporter Phyllis Zorn had not broken any laws by accessing Carrie Newell's driving record online. It found instead that when a Marion county police officer called the department of revenue to ask about her search, he reached a, quote, erroneous conclusion that Phyllis Zorn lied about her identity in order to access the record. The report added, quote, other than this single phone call, no additional investigation was done. The report also addressed the question of whether the police chief, Gideon Cody, was retaliating against the newspaper for looking into his background. They wrote that it was more likely that the police, quote, genuinely reached the conclusion that they had uncovered a crime. The report went on to say that, quote, it is not a crime under Kansas law for a law enforcement officer to conduct a poor investigation and reach erroneous conclusions. But the special prosecutors did find probable cause to believe that Gideon Cody had broken one law. A former Kansas police chief tied to a raid on a local newspaper last year has been charged with felony obstruction of justice.

[Eric Meyer]

As often as the case in scandals. It's not the. The thing that happened that was important. It was the COVID up.

[Phoebe Judge]

Afterward, restaurant owner Carrie Newell told investigators that in the days after the raid, Gideon Cody had told her to delete text messages between the two of them. She said that he asked her to delete them because he didn't want anyone to misconstrue anything like a smiley face emoji.

[Gideon Cody]

I did delete those messages against my better judgment and instantly regretted it.

[Phoebe Judge]

Gideon Cody was suspended and then resigned. He was charged with obstruction of justice in August of 2024, and the case is still ongoing today. We reached out to his lawyer for comment and didn't hear back. How did this raid change your newsroom?

[Eric Meyer]

Well, the reporter who had her cell phone ripped away from her resigned. She couldn't take working in Marion anymore. She couldn't deal with being around the same people because, you know, the magistrate's still there, county attorney's still there, the sheriff's still there, the sheriff's investigator's still there. You know, there were some nice things that happened. People supported the newspaper. I mean, we got tens of thousands of messages of support. We are the 122nd largest town in Kansas, not very big. As of today, we have the 8th largest paid circulation in the state of Kansas because of thousands of people who subscribe to the paper in support of it.

[Phoebe Judge]

In addition to the criminal charge against Gideon Cody, the newspaper has filed a federal lawsuit against him and other officers and the former mayor of Marion, David Mayfield, who allegedly authorized the raid. Eric Meyer had written critical editorials about him, and the lawsuit states that David Mayfield wrote on his Facebook page about two weeks before the raid that, quote, the real villains in America are the radical journalists, teachers and professors. The lawsuit also states that the raid violated the newspaper's constitutional rights along with the federal Privacy Protection Act. We reached out to the lawyer defending David Mayfield and other city officials named in the lawsuit, and she declined to comment.

[Eric Meyer]

The issue here is not just the raid. It's the idea that law enforcement can be weaponized politically, personally to attack journalists who report things that people don't want to have reported.

[Phoebe Judge]

There's a memorial honoring Eric Meyer's mother, Joanne Meyer, outside of the Marion County Records offices. The video of her standing up to the police during the raid went viral. She and Eric received a number of awards and she was posthumously inducted into the Kansas Press association hall of Fame along with her son. How do you think your mother would feel about what has happened since the raid?

[Eric Meyer]

My mother was a person who never really liked having much attention, but in an odd sort of way I think she'd kind of feel happy about what happened. Her death meant something and it's not common for a 98 year old person to be able to say that their death meant something, that she became a symbol of a cause. I think she would, she would appreciate that.

[Phoebe Judge]

Criminal is created by Lauren Spohr and me. Nadia Wilson is our senior producer. Katie Bishop is our supervising producer. Our producers are Susanna Roberson, Jackie Sachico, Lily Clark, Lena Sillison and Megan Kinane. Our show is mixed and engineered by Veronica Simonetti. Julian Alexander makes original illustrations for each episode of Criminal. You can see [e-mail] and you can sign up for our [e-mail] Newsletter. We hope you'll consider supporting our work by joining our membership program Criminal. Plus you can listen to Criminal this is Love and Phoebe reads a mystery without any ads. Plus you'll get bonus episodes. These are special episodes with me and Criminal co creator Lauren Spohr telling stories from the last 10 years of working together. To learn more, go to thisiscriminal.com plus we're on Facebook and Twitter criminalshow and Instagram criminalpodcast. We're also on YouTube at YouTube.com criminalpodcast Criminal is part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Discover more great [e-mail] I'm Phoebe Judge. This is Criminal.