Reporter sues police officials over raid on rural Kansas newspaper

(CN) — A former Kansas police chief who spearheaded a raid on a rural Kansas newspaper did so using search warrants obtained under false pretenses and attempted to destroy evidence, one of the paper’s reporters claims in a lawsuit filed in federal court Tuesday.

Phyllis J. Zorn is demanding $950,000 in damages in connection to the Aug. 11, 2023, raid on the Marion County Record in central Kansas.

She says that authorities violated her First and Fourth Amendment rights and failed to train their officers on those protections.

Former Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody, the City of Marion, the Board and County Commission of Marion County, Marion County Sheriff Jeff Soyez, David Mayfield, who was Marion's mayor at the time of the raid, officer Zachariah Hudlin of the Marion Police Department, and Aaron Christner, a Marion County Sheriff's Office detective are all named as defendants in the lawsuit.

Zorn suffers from seizures that she is generally able to keep under control, and she hadn't experienced one in five years until the days following the raid, when she began experiencing debilitating grand mal seizures, which she says have caused her to experience extreme depression and anxiety.

She is represented by Randall K. Rathbun of the Wichita firm Depew Gillen. Her lawsuit is the second filed by a Record reporter in connection with the raid.

The newspaper began investigating Cody after he became a candidate for police chief and the paper received tips from people who knew him as a commander in the Kansas City, Missouri, police department.

"Three sources told the paper that Cody ran over a dead body at a crime scene," Zorn says in the complaint. "The tipsters also reported that Cody was about to be demoted by the Kansas City Police Department from captain to sergeant because of offensive conduct towards other officers"

After he was hired in Marion, he became aware the Record was looking into his background in Kansas City. He suggested to Zorn that she start a competing paper.

"The plaintiff laughed off the suggestion, not understanding the depth of his anger at the Record," Zorn says in the complaint. "When Ms. Zorn disclaimed any interest in his proposal, she was moved to Cody's enemies list."

The searches were prompted by a complaint from local restaurant owner Kari Newell, who accused the newspaper of invading her privacy by obtaining copies of her driving record, which included a 2008 conviction for driving under the influence. The official spokesperson for the Kansas Department of Revenue, which operates the public-facing website the Record consulted, confirmed after the raid that its use by reporters was legal.

"Thus, the entire premise of Chief Cody’s claim that a crime had been committed by the Record’s use of the Kansas Department of Revenue Status Check tool to verify that the information and document which the paper’s confidential source had provided about the status of Newell’s driver’s license was false and Cody either knew it was false or should have known it was false," Zorn says in the complaint.

The paper obtained Cody's body camera footage from the raid through an open records request. The footage shows that Cody's camera was off when perused reporter Deb Gruver's file on him during the search of the Record's offices, but the camera was on as he relieved himself at a local convenience store.

He also could not recall the wording of the Miranda warning prior to questioning Zorn. On body camera footage, he says to his colleagues: "This is just me playing instinct ... If I'm forgetting something, guys, you gotta let me know, I'm out of practice."

Authorities on Aug. 11 also searched the home of Record publisher Eric Meyer. Meyer’s 98-year-old mother Joan died the next day. Meyer has attributed her death to the stress of the raid.

Many experts who spoke to Courthouse News said the raid and search appeared to violate the Privacy Protection Act of 1980, which prohibits authorities from using search warrants to obtain journalists’ work products without probable cause and requires authorities to instead use a subpoena, which news organizations can then challenge. Kansas journalists are also covered by a shield law.

After the raid, Cody asked Newell to destroy flirtatious text message the two had exchanged, which included Newell referring to Cody as "honey."

Gruver sued Cody shortly after the raid. That case is headed to mediation in April.

Cody could not immediately be reached for comment.

Less than a month after the raid, Cody resigned and left Marion. "It is believed he may be somewhere in Hawaii," Zorn says in the complaint.

Follow @nelson_aj

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Email *

Submit