Before Kansas newspaper raid, police chief left KCPD under cloud, facing discipline

Before becoming police chief of Marion, Kansas, and leading a raid on the small town’s newspaper, Gideon Cody left the Kansas City Police Department under a cloud, facing possible discipline and demotion, police sources have told The Star.

Cody, who was a captain in the police department’s property crimes unit, was under internal review for allegedly making insulting and sexist comments to a female officer.

The day after making the comments, Cody reportedly phoned the female officer and acknowledged his behavior was unprofessional.

But Cody, 54, didn’t know that the officer had secretly recorded their last conversation and later filed a hostile work environment complaint against him with police department officials.

The events, reported to have occurred in the months before Cody left Kansas City in April to take the job in Marion, were described to The Star by several current and former police officials who had knowledge of the incident. The police officials asked not to be named in this story because they were not authorized to discuss personnel matters.

In Marion, Cody led the raid Friday at the office of the Marion County Record and oversaw the execution of search warrants at the homes of its publisher and a city councilwoman. His officers were apparently searching for evidence about how the paper obtained information about a local restaurant owner’s DUI record.

Cody’s decision to execute a search warrant at a newsroom, seizing journalists’ materials, has been widely condemned and thrust the town of fewer than 2,000 people, about 160 miles southwest of Kansas City, into the national spotlight. The paper’s lawyer and legal experts said the search violated federal law.

Indeed, Marion County’s prosecutor, Joel Ensey, withdrew the search warrants Wednesday and returned the newsroom’s computers, cellphones and other reporting material. There was “insufficient evidence” for the newsroom search, he said.

Cody has defended his actions and said more information would come out later. But the raid set off a firestorm, prompting strong criticism from First Amendment advocates and journalism outlets from across the country.

Gideon Cody at the Kansas City Police Department

While still under investigation at the KCPD, Cody was reassigned to work the late, overnight shift in the Metro Patrol Division. Among police, the shift is called the “dogwatch” because it is a less desirable assignment often given to rookie officers.

At the end of the internal investigation into the hostile work complaint, Cody was told that he would be demoted to sergeant.

Instead of accepting the lower-ranked role, Cody left the force he worked at for just over 24 years, sources told The Star.

Cody’s last day with the Kansas City Police Department was April 22. When asked for comment this week, Sgt. Jacob Becchina, a police department spokesman, told The Star: “Our attorneys in our Office of General Counsel have told us we are prohibited from commenting on details of internal investigations.”

This week, The Star requested copies of complaints filed against Cody with the police department’s Office of Community Complaints. The office declined to provide the documents, citing a Missouri law that prohibits the release of certain law enforcement records.

Joseph Martineau, a St. Louis-based lawyer representing The Star in this case, wrote to the complaint office Wednesday to protest their decision and call for immediate compliance with the Missouri Sunshine Law, which ensures access to public records.

The prohibition cited by the complaint office, Martineau wrote, “is expressly limited to only those records ‘compiled as a result of’ an investigation.”

But, Martineau wrote, The Star “has not requested records compiled as a result of an investigation but instead only records that constitute complaints that involve or include Capt. Cody.”

Cody did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday. A reporter who went to the Marion Police Department Wednesday was told Cody was not in the office.

Reached by The Star, the female KCPD officer declined to comment, saying she was concerned about her and her family’s well-being. The Star generally does not name alleged victims of sexual harassment without their consent.

In May, Cody was sworn in as Marion’s new police chief, a job that pays $60,000 a year, according to the Peabody Gazette-Bulletin, which is significantly less than the $115,848 annual salary he earned as a Kansas City police captain.

Eric Meyer, the Record’s publisher and editor, said that before the raid, his newspaper had been investigating Cody’s background and his time in Kansas City. Some of that information was on the servers seized by Cody’s officers and county sheriff’s deputies.

Meyer told The Star the newspaper didn’t publish a story about the allegations because reporters could not confirm them.

As the story has spread across the country, readers have wondered what tips the local paper got about Cody. Sources laid out the allegations to The Star this week.

An ‘Alpha male’

During his time with the Kansas City Police Department, former co-workers described Cody as a “go-getter, but someone who is probably not the best commander material.”

Another previous co-worker said Cody was “a hot dog, an officer who didn’t always follow the rules and the kind of person who wanted to push the edge a little bit.”

“He’s the type to like to challenge things he didn’t like, you know, just standard policy,” said a former police commander who asked not to be identified. “His personality is where he just didn’t go along to get along.”

Cody joined the KCPD as a patrol officer in June 1999. In 2004, he was awarded commendations for saving the life of a suicidal man and for arresting several drug traffickers the year before.

He was promoted to sergeant in 2007 and captain in 2014.

Cody was eventually transferred to the East Patrol Division, which includes neighborhoods in the city’s historic Northeast.

Bryan Stalder, a former leader of the Indian Mound Neighborhood Association, said his initial meeting with Cody was less than amicable but that his opinion of the officer improved later on.

“This guy kind of rubbed me the wrong way. I could have gotten off on the wrong foot with him, but there was just something weird about him,” Stalder said.

Stalder said he was accustomed to working with police commanders and he tried to explain to Cody how community policing had previously worked in the neighborhood.

“He really didn’t seem like he even cared and really wanted to talk about himself,” Stalder said. “I could be completely wrong about this guy. But he just seemed like he was a real alpha male.”

As the months passed, Stalder said his impression of Cody changed.

Cody alerted Stalder and other neighborhood leaders about an abandoned house in the 300 block of North White Avenue that attracted homeless people. The house had been set on fire.

Stalder said Cody suggested neighborhood leaders utilize the Missouri Abandoned Housing Act to have property renovated and get rid of the crime it had attracted.

“That really did reflect to me that maybe he was paying attention to my role as a neighborhood leader and what we could do to address certain things,” Stalder said. “And I did appreciate that.”

In July 2019, Cody was transferred to the Traffic Investigation Unit in south Kansas City, according to the Northeast News.

Police chief in Marion

When Cody took the job as Marion’s top cop, he told the local newspaper, “I like small towns. And I still think I have something to offer the community.”

But not everyone was convinced city leaders made the right decision.

Vice Mayor Ruth Herbel said she was “skeptical” of Cody when he was being vetted as a candidate, though she was hesitant to say more. As the newspaper was being raided, officers also seized the councilwoman’s cellphone and laptop.

When the Record reported that Cody had been offered the job in April, the newspaper was “inundated” with phone calls about him.

“More than half a dozen or more people who had previously worked with the chief, suggesting that the city should not hire him,” said the Record’s owner and publisher, Eric Meyer. “Alleging a variety of things.”

Speaking from his office Monday, Meyer said he did not know if the tips were true but claimed Cody once threatened to sue the paper for libel. The paper ultimately did not publish a story about the tips Meyer said his staff got about Cody.

“We could never get anybody to go on the record,” Meyer said, noting that law enforcement members who had worked with Cody did not want to be labeled “rats” by speaking to the paper.

Meyer said there was “ill will” between the chief and the paper, which crossed his mind as Cody’s officers seized his journalists’ materials, taking with them information about Cody.

He told The Star on Sunday that he feared the material police seized could have allowed Cody to know who contacted the newspaper.

Bernie Rhodes, an attorney who is representing the Record in this case and has represented The Star in other cases, said the Record does not believe Marion police accessed the seized devices, but he brought in a forensic expert to be sure.

The Star’s Katie Moore contributed.