Former chief objects to witnesses, charges
Staff writer
In a flurry of legal motions to be heard Jan. 6, former Marion police chief Gideon Cody is attempting to block testimony and dismiss charges he faces of interfering with judicial process.
Cody’s attorneys are objecting to proposed testimony from:
- Training and records officers connected with Cody’s former employer, the Kansas City (Missouri) Police Department, where he reportedly faced demotion from captain to sergeant before being hired at little more than half his former salary as Marion’s chief.
- Former Kansas City investigative reporter Jessica McMaster, who was the first to report that restaurant owner Kari Newell said she had been urged by Cody to destroy text messages they exchanged.
- Overland Park attorney Tom Bath as an expert on legal requirements imposed on police to reveal information that may contradict what they claim in criminal investigations.
The only proposed witness identified Nov. 25 that Cody’s attorneys did not object to is Wichita lawyer Jennifer Hill, who has represented Cody and the City of Marion on behalf of Marion’s insurance carrier in federal lawsuits brought by the Marion County Record and five individuals targeted in now-disavowed police raids Aug. 11, 2023.
Although an earlier motion by Cody’s attorneys to dismiss the case against him was denied, and a district judge found probable cause at a preliminary hearing Oct. 15 to bind him over for trial, Cody’s attorneys also filed a new motion to dismiss the case and bar it from being refiled.
The motion contends that Kari Newell did not withhold anything by destroying text messages because she was aware Cody had preserved copies of the messages.
The motion correctly states that Cody executed search warrants Aug. 11, 2023, at the Record newsroom and the homes of its publisher and Marion’s vice mayor at the time.
But it erroneously states that he also led a raid that day on the home of Pam Maag, who provided the Record and the vice mayor legally obtained copies of documents indicating that Newell had been driving illegally after failing to resolve a drunken driving conviction nearly 20 years earlier.
A warrant to search Maag’s home as part of what was labeled an identity theft case was requested but denied.
A day after the raids, Record co-owner Joan Meyer died of sudden cardiac arrest attributed in a coroner’s report to stress related to her home, which she shared with the Record’s publisher, being raided for 2½ hours by as many as seven officers.
Cody’s attorneys contend in their motion to dismiss that he did not urge Newell to destroy texts to cover up any wrongdoing but rather to avoid having the texts be used as evidence of an affair, which both he and Newell deny existed, during Newell’s then-pending divorce from Ryan Newell.
Should Cody’s trial, scheduled for Feb. 3 to 6 go forward, Cody’s attorneys also are requesting special permission to create an expanded questionnaire for potential jurors focusing on “their exposure to and participation in . . . media coverage, the accompanying social media discussions, and their personal knowledge of the events and relationships with individuals involved.”
The trial is scheduled to be conducted in Marion, but Cody’s attorneys state “there have been discussions both on and off the record regarding a possible change of venue.”
All of the motions by Cody’s attorneys are scheduled to be heard at 9 a.m. Jan. 6 in Marion by District Judge Ryan W. Rossauer.
Cody is represented by Sal Intagliata of Triad Legal and Audra Asher. Special prosecutors in the case are Sedgwick County district attorney Marc Bennett and Riley County attorney Barry Wilkerson.