The places of work of the Marion County Record weekly newspaper sit throughout the road from the Marion County, Kan., Courthouse, Aug. 21, 2023, in Marion. The police chief who led the August raid on the small weekly newspaper in central Kansas has resigned, simply days after he was suspended from his publish, a City Council member confirmed Monday, Oct. 2, 2023.

John Hanna/AP

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John Hanna/AP

The places of work of the Marion County Record weekly newspaper sit throughout the road from the Marion County, Kan., Courthouse, Aug. 21, 2023, in Marion. The police chief who led the August raid on the small weekly newspaper in central Kansas has resigned, simply days after he was suspended from his publish, a City Council member confirmed Monday, Oct. 2, 2023.

John Hanna/AP

TOPEKA, Kan. — The police chief who led an August raid on a small weekly newspaper in central Kansas has resigned, simply days after he was suspended from his post, a City Council member confirmed Monday.

City Council Member Ruth Herbel confirmed to The Associated Press that the mayor introduced Chief Gideon Cody’s resignation at Monday’s City Council assembly. The announcement comes days after Cody was suspended for causes that weren’t made public, and weeks after an area prosecutor mentioned that there wasn’t ample proof to justify the search of the Marion County Record.

Cody didn’t instantly return a phone message looking for remark about his resignation. The mayor additionally didn’t reply to a textual content and cellphone name about it. The public announcement of Cody’s resignation was initially reported by the Marion County Record and the Wichita Eagle.

Cody’s departure comes after not too long ago obtained physique digicam video from the search of the newspaper exhibits that an officer rifled by way of a desk drawer of a reporter who was investigating its chief. The video then exhibits the officer beckoning Cody over to have a look at the paperwork he’d discovered. The AP obtained the physique digicam video Monday by way of an open information request.

Cody then says, “Keep a personal file on me. I don’t care,” the video exhibits. He’s briefly seen bending over, apparently to have a look at the drawer, earlier than the opposite officer’s clipboard blocks the view of what the chief is doing.

Cody obtained warrants for raids on the newspaper’s places of work, the house of its writer and Herbel’s dwelling by telling a choose that he had proof of doable id theft and different potential crimes tied to the circulation of details about an area restaurant proprietor’s driving report. But the newspaper and its lawyer have instructed he might need been looking for out what it had learned about his past as a police captain in Kansas City, Missouri.

“This was all about finding out who our sources were,” Bernie Rhodes, the newspaper’s lawyer, mentioned Monday.

The raids put Marion, a city of 1,900 residents some 150 miles (240 kilometers) southwest of Kansas City, on the middle of a fierce nationwide debate over press freedoms and solid a global highlight on Cody and his techniques. The mayor final week suspended Cody from the chief’s job indefinitely; he is going through one federal lawsuit, and others are anticipated.

The native prosecutor later mentioned that there wasn’t ample proof to justify the warrants for the raids. The Kansas Bureau of Investigation then took cost of the probe and hasn’t mentioned the place it stands.

Eric Meyer, the Record’s editor and writer, blames the stress of the raids for the demise the following day of his 98-year-old mom, Joan Meyer, the paper’s co-owner.

Cody didn’t reply earlier Monday to an electronic mail and phone message looking for remark in regards to the raids and the newspaper’s view of his motives. But the physique digicam video exhibits him repeatedly tellling newspaper staffers that he’s investigating the way it and Herbel obtained details about the proprietor of two native eating places, Kari Newell.

“It grew into a monster, and it’s got your name on it,” Cody advised Record reporter Phyllis Zorn, who had verified details about Newell on-line, after studying Zorn her rights, one video exhibits.

The Associated Press obtained copies of the police division’s physique digicam video by way of an open information request from a Wichita legislation agency representing Cody within the federal lawsuit. It was filed by Deb Gruver, the Record reporter who’d been trying into Cody’s previous, who not too long ago left the newspaper.

The video of Cody at Gruver’s desk is from the physique digicam of Marion Police Officer Zach Hudlin. There gave the impression to be no corresponding video of the identical second from Cody’s personal digicam.

The video exhibits that officers, led by Cody, searched the Record newsroom after interviewing Zorn, Gruver and the newspaper’s enterprise supervisor, and escorting them out of the constructing. Hudlin then goes by way of a drawer in Gruver’s desk — after Gruver advised the chief she had nothing to do with the reporting on Newell.

Hudlin asks Cody, “You want to look through this desk?”

Cody responds that Hudlin has the appropriate to look by way of it, and Hudlin replies, “I know. I’m asking, do YOU want to look through this desk?”

After Cody goes to the desk, Hudlin tells him, “You will understand shortly.”

It’s not clear from the video how intently Cody examined what was within the desk, and the article Hudlin discovered — described by Rhodes as a file on Cody’s time in with the Kansas City, Mo., police division.

Cody retired from the Kansas City police in late April, across the time the Marion City Council interviewed him. He took an enormous minimize in pay: The Kansas City police paid him practically $116,000 a 12 months, whereas the Marion job pays $60,000 yearly.

Meyer has mentioned Cody knew weeks earlier than the raids that the newspaper was trying into nameless tips on why Cody retired from the Kansas City police. Meyer mentioned when he requested Cody a query about it, Cody threatened a lawsuit.