Former Marion police chief in court over newspaper raid

WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) - Former Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody made his first court appearance Monday in Marion County.

Cody is accused of interfering with the judicial process after he led raids on the Marion County Record's newsroom, the homes of its publisher and a city council member last year. Prosecutors accuse Cody of telling Kari Newell to delete text messages after the raid on the Marion County Record offices.

Cody was rushed into the courtroom through a side door with his lawyer. During the hearing, a judge denied Cody's request to dismiss the case. After hearing from both the prosecution and defense, a 60-day status hearing was scheduled for Dec. 16 at 10 a.m. Cody may not be there, but his lawyer is working on getting a waiver allowing him to speak fully on his behalf.

“Then, setting a firm date because his client's got to travel. I'm not opposed to the latter option of the two. That seems reasonable enough," Marc Bennett, prosecutor, said during the hearing.

Cody did not comment after the hearing. His lawyer asked people to wait for the case to be litigated so that the full story would come out.

"Take a minute to reserve judgment, take a minute to avoid jumping to conclusions and allow the system to work," Sal Intagliata, Cody's attorney, said.

It comes as Eric Meyer, the publisher and owner of the Marion County Record, said that the justice system is slow.

"We can take a delay in the justice system as long as the delay results in a proper assessment of things. We're not in a hurry. He should be having plenty of time to think about this and what he did," Meyer said.

Meyer believes others should also be charged in the case. Cody is the only person charged with a crime. Meyer says he believes Cody deserves quite a bit of blame but that he "hates to see Gideon Cody be the fall guy"

The Marion County record is working on getting more information from the city through the Kansas Open Records Act.