The police chief of Marion, Kansas, was suspended this week after a collection of raids that included an area newspaper workplace and the house of a sheriff’s deputy.
Marion Mayor David Mayfield suspended Police Chief Gideon Cody on Thursday. According to the Marion County RegisterIt’s the identical newspaper that was raided.
The Marion Police Division confirmed the suspension on Saturday. The mayor’s workplace didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The newsroom, the house of writer Eric Meyer, and the house of Deputy Mayor Ruth Herpel had been searched on August 11 after Cody’s acknowledged perception {that a} reporter dedicated identification theft by accessing the driving force information of restaurant proprietor Carrie Newell, court docket paperwork beforehand reported by the newspaper. The lawyer acknowledged.
“Downloading the doc includes both impersonating the sufferer or mendacity in regards to the causes for requesting the report,” the chief wrote in affidavits.
Nevertheless, the newspaper mentioned that reporter Phyllis Zorn obtained the information via the state Division of Income’s on-line search engine after the newspaper obtained data that Newell had been convicted of a DUI in 2008. The newspaper needed to know if that may forestall Newell from ingesting Alcoholic. license. The newspaper mentioned it requested the police in regards to the data.
Herbel additionally obtained the identical recommendation.
Marion County District Lawyer Joel Ince later requested police to return any property seized, saying They did not have enough evidence to justify the raids.
Herpel, who known as for Cody to be suspended, mentioned the raid on her residence was “illegal” and her pc and telephone had been taken “with out justification”. She additionally accused the police chief of forging paperwork used to acquire search warrants.
“The district lawyer withdrew all search warrants after which falsified paperwork by altering the search warrants after that they had been served on me by altering the phrases ‘identification theft and unlawful acts involving computer systems’ to ‘identification theft and official misconduct’ earlier than submitting the arrest warrant in District Courtroom. “, she mentioned in a City council meeting final week. “That is felony fraud.”
The newspaper additionally mentioned that the search was unjustified. A day after police raided Mayer’s residence, his 98-year-old mom, Report co-owner Joan Mayer, died. He blamed her loss of life on stress brought on by what occurred.