Accountability and the Aftermath

On this week's on the media, a small town who done it filled with divorce, corruption and backstabbing. The mystery? Who is behind the brazen attack? on a local newspaper. KSHB forty one senior investigator Jessica McMaster continues to push for answers after police raidated the small town newspaper, The Marion County Reord. I don't know whether he feels that way about all journalists or not I this was targeting me personally. this hatred goes back decades. The judge ordered it on what reason It was brought to my attention today that my fin personal information that was illegally obained obtained by a local reporter, She started talking to me. you know, she was very stern that police did the right thing And that the truth was gonna come out. It's all coming up after this WNYC Studios is supported by Mohaunk Mountain House. Before summer turns into fall, reserve your summer getaway to Hudson Valley's most iconic resort, Mohaunk Mountain House, a family owned and operated national historic landmark since eighteen sixty nine featuring breathtaking views, guided nature hikes, tennis and pickleball, golf, sumptuous dining, and evening entertainment, all included in your overnight's stay With so much included in your stay, they make it easy to have a truly stress free vacation. Just pack your bags and they'll do the rest. Mohonk. com. WNYC stududios is supported by Con Edison. New York, if your AC is always turned up Well, your energy bills are likely to go up too Luckily, C Edison has ways to help Try their personalized energy saving tips, or explore budget billing, which helps to spread out your biggest payments Visit coned d. com slash Bill helpelp to get started. because taking control is New York I from WNYC in New York. This is on the Media. I'm Brooke Lladstone. And I'm Michael Loinger. In August of twenty twenty three, police in Marion County, Kansas, brandishing a search warrant, raided the offices of the local paper and the home of the newspaper's editor and publisher seasoning computers and cell phones The story made national headlines and caught the attention of Brian Reid. You might remember him as the host of the hugely popular podcast STown, a serial and this American Life production Now he has his own show, in collaboration with the public radio station KCRW. It's called questestion everythingverything. And according to its tagline, the show looks into, quote, how the truth gets buried, distorted, and denied, and the ways people are fighting to make it matter again The Marion County raid was squarely in their wheelhouse and it's a great OTM story. So this week we're handing over the hour to Brian to tell this small town whod done it filled with divorce, corruption, and backstabbing The mystery Who was behind this brazen attack on a local newspaper It was the summer of twenty twenty three and the Marion County record had been making a lot of enemies. There was the new police chief who'd come to town under suspicious circumstances from Kansas City, who the paper had been investigating There was the local restaurant owner who had recently kicked Marion County Record reporters out of a political event at her cafe And then There was the mayor of Marion So I just shared this post on Facebook. The real villains in America aren't black people, they aren't white people. They aren't Asians, they aren't Latinos They aren't women, they aren't gays They are the radical journalists teachers and professors who do nothing but sow division between the American people I have that posted on the wall in my office This is Eric Meyer editor and publisher and owner of the Marion County Record, a weekly newspaper Before this, he worked at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and also taught journalism at the University of Illinois Marion's a town of less than two thousand in rural Kansas There aren't too many people there with that resume. Um I don't whether he feels that way about all journalists or not Iike this was targeting me personally M this, this hatred goes back decades The animosity from the mayor, his name is David Mayfield Eric says that dates back to at least two thousand three. When he was city administrator, not mayor And we had an outbreak of cyanobacteria, blue green algae that affected the reservoir, which is the water supply for Marion paper got a tip that the town was taking water from the reservoir evenven though the Kansas Department of Health had not said it was safe And we asked about it, and the mayor denied that. We then got proof that they actually had been doing it And then the mayor said, Ohh, well I didn't say that because I knew it was safe because I took my rowboat out to the reservoir and rode to where the water comes in and there was no algae around it. And we responded the toxin in the algae is invisible Well, that's just, you know He didn't like that I was also there when the mayor and the city's economic development director Both of them got divorced and they are now married to each other The economic Development director took city money and set up a business by giving them a loan purchase inventory with. The company was called upp in Smoke And it was a cigarette shop And, uh, After they opened Their inventory mysteriously vanished In a burglary, by the way, they were set up in a building that she owned and rented to them. repeported this when my father had a sudden cardiac arrest. and would have died had there not been an EMT who lived a block away. reportedly the woman who is now the mayor's wife. went around to several people sin too bad he got there that quick. She's denied this The blood is clearly bad between Eric, the mayor, and his wife When I reached out to Mayor Mayfield, he wrote me that none of the quote, false information you have been spoonfed by Mr. Eric Meyer is true His wife, the former economic development director told me it's crazy that she would wish death on Eric's dad, that she and Er's dad were neighbors for years and got along okay Soough she did say her relationship with the newspaper was a constant battle. Plus she said I can assure you my husband has not been in a roboat Anytime since I've known him The most recent thing Eric says Mayor Mayfield was mad at him in the paper about was that they've been covering opposition on the city council to an ordinance the mayor wanted passed a local government thing having to do with bond approvals that he'd been trying to squeak through without people noticing That was the story dujour when the mayor had shared that Facebook post Watchdog journalism, pissing off people in charge, people like the police chief, the restaurant owner, the mayor is a tradition in Eric's family His dad's mom, his grandma, worked for the Wichita Eagle and was disappointed. She had to take mandatory retirement at age sixty five because she missed out on uncovering the Vietnam War then Eric's dad and his mom, they both worked at the Marion County Record. The record's one hundred fifty five years old, Eric's parents worked at it for decades before buying the paper in nineteen ninety eight to stop it from being sold to a conglomerate. And then Thereere's Eric, their only child I had started out there when I was a kid you know, stapling and assembling jobs. and then I became the dark room technician and took all the pictures and developed the films and became the engraving technician So you literally you have journalism in your blood. likeike this is a family profession In twenty twenty, Eric decided to move back home full time to Marion. By this point, his father had died and he wanted to give his mom a hand running the paper She was ninety five I lived with her. I helped her with stuff. She was still working for the paper She had a weekly column. off you know, the recollections fifteen years ago, thirty years ago, forty five years ago, stuff from the paper Which brings us back to the summer of twenty twenty three It's Friday morning, a little before eleven I was sitting right where I'm sitting right now at a computer at my mother's house. And there was a ring at the doorbell and I looked up and I looked out a window here and I can see there were a couple of uniformed officers out there body cam footage of this from the police So I went to the door Hello, Eric Myer. Yeah. Good morning. Hey, we're a lo local law enforcement. And they said we're here to serve a search warrant on you. H Here with a search warrant T take a look at your digital devices. And we want your cell phone and your laptop and your desktop and anything you've used. And if you don't provide them, we're here to take In the video, Eric's standing in the doorway in an oversized t shirt and shorts. A bit disheveled, a bit discombobulated The cop hands him the warrant. Okay, You're more than more than welcome to read through that. It's all in there. Eric scans the document It says there's probable cause to search his and his mom's house because of allegations of identity theft and unlawful use of computers It doesn't give any more details about those supposed crimes, and it doesn't mention the newspaper Eric suspects it must have something to do with their reporting.. So thinking quick on his feet, he goes into journalism prorofessor mode. Okay, I'm going to object to this on the grounds of the can' Shield law. You can do that, sir. Eric knew that when police want info from a reporter What they're supposed to do is subpoena it Here, whatever the Marian police were after, they had not done that. Eric had not gotten the subpoena And yet, waving around their search warrant, the officers walk through Eric's house and start rifling through his thingsings. Shield law be damned He tries to keep it cool. I understand. Which jge ordered it? I was simply I'm going to inform you that I think that you're doing something wrong and make a formal objection to it. But you're going you're going to get a suit back against false search. That's okay. you understand that. And try to do it in as even tempered a manner as I can so that you can't say that I resisted arrest or resisted whatever So he did get some choice words in there. Okay, I understand you're not the people who are involved in this. However you are in big deep Right.'s understand. Eric knows he needs a lawyer, fast. But the police have already confiscated his cell phone with all his contacts. So he picks up his mom's landline and dials the Marion County Records offffice, where his employees are But they're not answering He starts to worry Cops over there too. I couldn't get through An anyone there, please answer the goddamn phone Police won't say what Eric has supposedly done wrong, but he starts running through theories in his head about what could behind this Of course, the mayor comes to mind. He clearly was not happy with the paper But there was also the police chief. His name was Gideyon Cody, listed prominently at the top of the search warrant. He was the one who applied for it, and he was in charge of the officers who were now raiding Eric's house. Chief Cody was new town He just started in the position a few months earlier. Now you have to understand, he had been a captain of police in Kansas City, Missouri earning almost one hundred twenty thousand dollars a year He was one year away from retirement there He took a job in Marion, Kansas sixty thousand dollars to be the chief of a town of nineteen hundred people. Something didn't make sense there And when the record had published Gidey and Cody's name reporting that he'd be Marion's new police chief We got inundated with calls from people he had worked with previously who said that he had a terrible record And In fact, they called him the worst officer they had ever served with Wow, And I'm talking about dozens of letters that we got that he was about to be demoted by the Kans City police and that he was coming here because If you stayed there He was supposed to be demoted to sergeant from capaptain And his retirement would forever be limited by that. So he needed to leave before he got demoted Erg and his team had been looking into this, of course investigating the new police chief's past. But they hadn't published any of the reporting yet. They were still trying to get people to go on the record and nail it down So is that why the police were coming after them because they were investigating their new chief certainly seem possible nervous about what's happening to his staff over at the records office Eric calls a friend. Can you go over you at your house? If you go to the record and tell them that I need them to talk to me right now, that I think that through to them? I have two police series in my neers. have here than you. later learned that they'd been escorted out of the building and sold to stand outside in one hundred degree heat. Your staff. Your staff had been? Yeah. Okay. Yeah and had their phones ripped away from them. So the cops were over at the newspaper office. There were at least five of them there Five cops at the office At one point, there were seven cops at his mom's house. after handing over his devices leaves his and his mother's house and he races over to the office. It's also been raided. compomuters taken, boulders torn through all with a search warrant listing the same alleged crimes. identity theft, unlawful use of computers and the same lack of details about them though. There was one line. It gave another hint as to who might be responsible for this. In the list of items police were supposed to seize from Eric's house and from the office, Number four read quote documents and records pertaining to Carry Newell Carrie Newell was a local business owner. She ran a restaurant inside the old Elgin Hotel in the center of town and a coffee shop across the street notot long before this The record had been leaks in documents pertaining to Cere which they also had not yet reported on They'd done some looking into them, but decided they didn't warrant a story And on its face at least, This seemed like it could be the most likely explanation for what was happening Because Eric knew that Care knew that the paper had this info about her because she complained about it at the most recent town council meeting. Ver. It was brought to my attention today that my private and personal information that was illegally obained obtained by a local reporter. and Eric had stood up to defend himself and the paper in front of the council. We did not obtain it Someone sent it to us. We actually consulted an attorney as to whether it was privileged information and whether we were in difficulty because we possessed it. Our attorney's advice was no Kare Newell had also just hosted an event for a congressman at her cafe and refuseed to let record reporters attend There's a whole situation So these are the possibilities Mayor Mayfield, pololice Chief Cody, Care Newell that are running through Eric's mind as he tries to figure out who's behind these raids, what they're about though he was about to be distracted. by a situation that was escalating with the police backack at his house We'll hear about that in a second WNYC Studios is supported by the New York Community Trust, providing a powerful way to make a difference on the causes and communities you care about Here's an audio portrait of Nancy Talbot who has a donor advised fund with her husband Jay and is part of a women's giving circle at the Tust I'm a native New Yorker who spent most of my adult life in Chicago. and when we moved back here twenty years ago We looked for a way to reconnect with the city New York Community Trust was our first stop and they introduced us to a Dor Circle, which has enabled me to meet extraordinary heroes in the five boroughs who have marvelous ideas but few resources to to make it happen, and we've had the privilege over the years of supporting them in their dreams. Contact the New York commommunity Trust at give two. nYc to find out more. That's gto. nYc WNYC Studios is supported by Mohawk Mountain House. It's not too late to plan your summer getaway to Mohawk Mountain House, the Hudson Valley's most iconic resort The family owned and operated national historic landmark since eighteen sixty nine. Faturing breathtaking views, guided nature hikes, tennis and pickle bball, golf, sumptuous dining, and evening entertainment, all included in your overnight stay. Experience for yourself why Mohaunk Mountain House is voted the most iconic resort in the Hudson Valley Reserve your next getaway at moohunk. com and feel your stresses melt away On the Media is supported by Eagles Crest Advisors. Eagle Crest Advisors works to take a holistic approach to financial planning, helping you create a comprehensive strategy that aligns with your life goals whether you're saving for retirement, purchasing a home, or funding your children's education, they help to guide you in making informed decisions with personalized advice and ongoing support, ensuring that your plan evolves as your needs change Learn more at eaglescrestadvisors. com This is on the media. I'm Michael Loinger. We're jumping right back into the episode of KCRW's Question Ething Here's the host, Brian Reid Eric's running back and forth between the records office where his employees are freaking out and his house. where his ninety eight year old mother is freaking out My name' Joan I'm an only child. She moved to this house the day before I was born So she'd lived there for seeventy years I was seventy at the time She was very upset to have these cops And they stood there for two and a half hours. just stood guard over her for two and a half hours She got very upset about that. I was trying to calm her down To be fair, your mom does seem pretty fiery in the video I've watched 's not dumb. Thank you. I may be ninety some years old, but I know what's going on. And what's going on is illegal as hell. Joanna is in a nightgown, leaning on her walker. You're all gonna get in trouble. Berating the cops as they occupy her living room. At this point, Eric is gone, heading to the paper's office. I worked at this paper for a good many years I've b the newspaper for a good many years The first time I've ever seen anybody allowed to do an illegal credit or a orter to do an illegal predit. Alexa. No, she was very upset about it.. She was demanding of her rights. She was trying to reach me.. At one point you can hear my cell phone ringing in the evidence bag sitting on the table Joanne glares at the cops, questioning them. Why are they here? on what authority? The judge ordered it, a cop says. The judge ordered it on what reason? That's all what I don't have access to. That was another odd thing about the search warrant Eric knew who the normal judge was in the eighth judicial district, which included Marion The signature on this warrant. It didn't look like that normal judge Eric and Joanne talk about it as the cops are hunting through their house The county attorney, the city officials, They all should have known it's against the law to allow a raid of journalists this way And if not them, The judge absolutely should have known not to approve this I want to know what reason she did it. I don't have. This is my house. I own this house. I understand that. Your mother's very upset in the video. She's yelling at them, swearing. She's slamming her walker. Had you ever seen her like that? No She's usually very calm. Don't you touch any of that stuff? man She knew that raiding someone who was involved in news gathering was wrong. And if ninety eight years she hasn't convinced people of this town that she's an honorable person who doesn't do things wrong, why the heck are they standing in her house We were respected people Oh Please terrible I tried to reassure her at some point. I said, I think they've grossly overstepped what they can do legally This is going to be onn the front page of the New York Times You had a sense that something big was happening like beyond the normal scope of ab in Marryion Cans And I tried to tell her. I tried to help her. I said, buullies Uually get caught when they do the one thing too many And they've done it. They've gone one step too far And her answer to me was, yeah, but I won't be alive to see it Finally. Okay. we're leaving. The police leave. It doesn't make Joanne feel any better she wouldn't eat that evening She wouldn't go to bed She sat in her chair She was still sitting in the chair at five thirty in the morning. att six thirty in the morning, she'd gone to bed Finally A little afternoon Uh I went in and she I heard that she'd stirred and gotten up and gone to the bathroom She came back to her bedroom and I said, you really need to eat something. You haven't had anything to eat since Thursday no And she says, I don't know, I don't feel too. died in the middle that sentence The coroner listed the stress of this raid as a contributing cause for her death Cornerers's report says Joanne died a natural death from sudden cardiac arrest He describes the anger and the upset she felt from the raid leading up to it. I'm not a crier I'm somebody who was raised by my mother and my father to, you know You react to a situation by doing what you can to correct the situation. And so I tried to do what I could And he figured what he could do. put out the next issue of the record I have to Arange for a funeral? I have to put out a newspaper by God, I'm gonna put out the newspaper There is no friing way that I amm going to let them seize our equipment and keep us from publishing that week The raids were on a Friday, Eric's mom died the next day, on Saturday. On Sunday, Eric went to the records offices and worked three days straight, pulling all nighters And without any of their computers or electronics, only some crappy old desktops, they had collecting dust in a junk room He and his staff got an issue to the printers at five thirty in the morning on Wednesday And what did you publish? The top story was the story of the raid And with a headline that says seized but not silenced Eric was right when he told his mom that the New York Times would cover what the police were doing that day in their house Raid of smallmall Kansas newewspaper raises free press concerns was the Times headline ice CN also covered it. The Washington Post. BBC MPR TBS. Fox newews, National press organizations, like the Committee to Potect journalists. a clear violation of the First Amendment It was a big International story There was also a journalist much closer to home TV reporter Jessica McMaster, and it was her who would eventually get to the bottom Of who prompted this raid And why I wasn't familiar with Marin at all. That's not actually even part of our coverage area over here in Kansas City. What piqued my interest, there was all this chatter on social media about who was behind this A refresher on the suspect list There was the mayor of Marion, who'd been clashing with Eric Meyer and the newspaper for years and had just made a nasty post online about journalists There was the local restaurant owner, who was also mad at the paper about their reporting and whose name was included on the warrants There was the judge maybe, who appeared to be a fillin for the normal district judge. and who signed off on the search of the newspaper? And then there was the man who carried out the raid. Kitt and Cody, the new chief of the Marion Police. That's what really triggered my interest was that we had this former police captain over here where we live in Kansas City who had gone over to Marion, was only on the job for a couple of months and the next thing you know, a newsroom was being raided Jessica focused on investigative stories for the Regional TV station, KSHB. busted open cases of local corruption and incompetence, elected officials taking taxpayer funded vacations on the city Council of Independence, Missouri After a seven year old boy was murdered in twenty fifteen Jessica exposed failings at the Kansas Department for Children and Families that led to new legislation being passed to protect kids So this former Kansas City police officer running a department that had just plundered a newspaper It caught her attention. Jessica emailed Gidey in Cody's office, asking him to explain why he'd done this. After all, it's not legal for cops to reite a newspaper Police Chief Cody responded with a statement, saying, I believe when the rest of the story is available to the public, the judicial system will be vindicated. Jessica wanted to know what the rest of the story was. She wanted to tell it to the public Monday morning after the Friday raids Jessica and our cameraman make the two hour drive from Kansas City to Marion It's her first time there. Just to give you an explainer on what this town looks like You have the newspaper and right across the street, you have the courthouse. And across the street from there is the sheriff's deepartment up the road from the newspaper is the Elgin Hotel And across the street from that is Carrie Newells Cafe Kerri Newell She's the restaurant owner. whose name had been mentioned on the search warrants for Eric's house and for the Marion County Records office Kerry had beef with the record in the weeks leading up to the raids over some documents they'd obtained about her She even complained about it at a city cououncil meeting As Jessica is checking into the Elgin Hotel, the old hotel downtown, the owner of the place gets to chatting with Jessica It turnurns out she's a friend of Care Newells She started talking to me and you know, she was very stern that what police did was that they did the right thing and that the truth was going to come out and that if I spoke to Carrie Newell, I would find out the truth. What did you make of that I knew there was more to this story It didn't make me think necessarily that anyone at the newspaper staff had committed a crime I could tell that people were confused about the rights of the free press in this country. and there wasn't a general understanding that what police did was extreme So Jessica goes to chat with Eric who's still grieving his mom while grinding to get a paper out without his computers Reporter to reporter, they talk and he tells Jessica The reason Carrie Newell seemed to be mad at the record They received a tip that gave them her driving information person by the name of Pam Bog said, you know, she's been driving illegally for many years I've got proof of it I hadn't really appreciated it 'il I dug into this story. How much the experience of running a small town newspaper can be like shooting a reality show for Bravo People are always trying to drag you into their little feuds and you have to figure out what's worth looking into what could actually be newsworthy And what's just gossip mongering In this case, the source, Pam Mogg, a former nine hundred and eleven dispatcher DMed one of Eric's reporters, a screenshot of a driving record for Care Newell indicating that Carrie had a drunk driving conviction that she never resolved It was from fifteen years earlier Meaning if you trusted this tip, Care, a well known local business owner, had been driving without a valid license for more than a decade The first thing you do is verify that it's actually true. You know, this is a cell phone snapshot of a document that was sent very low res over Facebook But it's real. A record reporter checks it out in a state database Is that a story, though? Eric thinks Maybe if the cops knows she's driving without a license and are letting it slide And then Eric's team gets a new tip fromrom someone else, the kid who mows the lawn for the husband of Cerriry Newell Lawnmor boy tells them, Carrie Newell and her husband They're going through a divorce This leak about carry driving illegally. It came from her ex. It was her ex husband who gave her driving information to her now ex best friend who gave it to the newspaper Oh yeah Pam Mog, the nine hundred eleven dispatcher who ratted Carry Newell out She was Karrie Newell's ex best friend So what it really is is this messy Divorce. is very personal feud between an ex husband and an ex friend So I decide that we aren't going to use this The whole thing was such a nothing burger of a story that Eric didn't even bother contacting Care Newell about it. Why then? Jessica wondered, Care been so mad att her ex best friend and her ex husband, sure, but at Eric in the paper when they didn't even run with the story Where did this whole idea of identity theft come from? Whatever the reason This is the story that's getting spit out of the rumor Mill and Marion in those early days. that Care Newell had filed a complaint about the paper with the cops and triggered the raid of Eric's home and newspaper office for accessing her personal driving information O news outlets start pointing to this as a likely explanation For me personally as a journalist, I don't know any of these players. I know that there's very clearly some of that small town riffts, if you will, going on, but I have no idea what's true, what's not. And so I wanted to talk to Gidy in Codi. After all, even if Care Newell had lodged a complaint with the police It was police Chief Gideon Cody who decided to respond with multiple raids Meanwhile, this is still all on that Monday after the Friday raids There's been a development Kansas Bureau of Investigation, the statewide laaw enforcement aggency, KBI, it's called for short has taken over the Marion County record case. That proves to be an obstacle when Jessica tries to get Gidy and Cody to talk. KSHB forty one senior investigor Jessica McMaster continues to push for answers after police rated the small town newspaper, The Marion County record I did stop by Gidey and Cody's office and tried to speak with him By now it's Tuesday Tuesday morning after not returning our calls and emails to request an interview, our I team showed up at Marion Police Department to ask Chief Gideon Cody a few questions As weed to get that went about how you thought it would He kind of shifted responsibility to KBI saying,, I can't talk to you about their case. That would get me in all kinds of trouble But KBI says that they weren't the one who issued the warrant. So can you tell me why instead of They sh a and pena and we like really good. Jaybe I will get angry at me if I start talking about their case at this point Jessica does not leave with her questions answered What would drive a person to do something like this? How did he not have awareness that this was going to become such a problem for him? Be he seemed so confident in the beginning He just seemed to lack any fundamental knowledge of how big of a problem this was going to be for him Jessica Wonders. Was there something more to know about getting Cody and Kare Newell There was time to see if Care would talk WNYC Studios is supported by the New York Community Trust, providing a powerful way to ensure the causes you care about are supported for decades to come Stay tuned for an audio portrait of Judge Stephen Robinson, who through his fund at the New York Community Trust, has found meaningful ways to give back and honor his loved ones My wife, Kathleen died at forty eight after bouts with breast cancer and leukemia How a daughter was eleven For weeks after my wife's death, our life, our grief wasn't the same Night fell Bedtime arrived with victorious tears soon to follow Night after night, she cried herself to sleep And I had no words to make it right Then one evening, she found them for me We know what we need to do We need to find a way to term Mommy's death into something good for someone else At eleven, Victoria found the path to healing That night we made a decision And through the New York commommunity Trust, we found a way to honor it My daughter is now a pediatric intensive care doctor She has found a way to turn her life's work into something good for someone else through the trust, our fun, in honor of my wife, her mother We continue to help. peopleeople inde Contact the New York Community Trust at give two.nYc to find out more. That's gto. nYc On the Media is supported by Eagles Crest Advisors. Eagle Crest Advisors works to take a holistic approach to financial planning, helping you create a comprehensive strategy that aligns with your life goals whether you're saving for retirement, purchasing a home, or funding your children's education, they help to guide you in making informed decisions with personalized advice and ongoing support, ensuring that your plan evolves as your needs change Learn more at eaglescrestadvisors. com This week on the New Yorker Radio Hour, I'll talk with R and B star Alicia Kees about growing up in New York City and what it takes to deal with the music business. Man, the music business. Let the record show Lisha Keys just w Alicia Keys on the New York Radio hour from WNYC. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. This is on the media. I'm Brooke Gladstone with the final part of Brian Reed's investigation into the raid on a Marion County newspaper. Here's Brian Jessica wants to talk to Care Newell about why she filed that complaint with the police. about any connection she might have to Chief Gideon and Cody But Carrie's not returning her calls As the weeks go on, Jessica is filing regular nightly news reports about what's happening in Marion, hustling back and forth from Kansas City, scarfing down one meal a day significant update tonight as we follow through with our coverage of the raIid on a Kansas newspaper. KSHB forty one newews I team obtained this video surveillance from the newspaper's camera. A Marion County District Ct released the lists of items seized from the newspaper. You'll see OS triage digital Data. This is a clone of the newspapers for the I team. I'm Jessica McMaster, KSHB forty one newews I remember following Jessica on Twitter during this time and she'd update her followers about the latest documents her team had gotten their hands on. or how she was quickly brushing her teeth in a parking lot before rushing to an interview I think there's an impression, especially on TV that I wake up and somebody's going do my hair and makeup. No. I can barely get my teeth brushed and get out the door. That's after I get my kids to school and everything else But still, no response from Care Then Jessica remembers the woman she met on her very first day in town. The owner of the Elgin Hotel, whose friends would carry who actually urged Jesica to talk to Carrie to get the whole story So Jessica calls the hotel owner and convinces her to make a plea on her behalf or Cry to please do an interview. How I looked at this was You know, when I look at accountability, I really look at that with the people in power Yes, Kare Newell is a local businesswoman, but she didn't have the power to raid anybody And so going after her in the same way that we would the police department for committing this act I just wouldn't do that And the hotel owner carriess friend She's successful She gets Care to invite Jessica to her cafe Carrie's cafe has this beautiful front porch before you walk into her coffee shop. And so we were sitting there in a couple wicker rocking chairs. and we were just chatting How did she seem when you sat down with her Nervous Nervous like she seemed like a woman who had been battered a bit, you know, on the internet. In the TV report Jessica later made about this, Carrie Newell plays loud voicemails she's been getting from angry callers since Joanne Myeer's death Earry Newle. I hope you end up in They don't need Pase go St! What are they saying Falling me a killer. Nonstop Did you have like a top of mind question? L what did you want to know from Carrie Newell? I wanted to know her level of involvement with this investigation. And what I really wanted to know was how it started because what people had believed was that Carrie was mad, took this to Gidedy and Cody, he did her a favor and launched this raid Chief Cody hadn't been in town long peopleeople had noticed that he and Karry Newal I become pretty fast friends In fact, some people speculated that maybe they were more than friends with Carrie going through a divorce and all But as they sit down on the porch of her cafe Carry tells Jessica that was not true. The relationship was platonic And the way people thought these raids started, Carry says that's also not true Carry tells Jessica one day shhortly before the raids She mentioned she got a missed call from Gidey and Cody And he sent her a text message said this is Chief Cody I need you to contact me back as soon as possible. We believe you've been the victim of a crime. So Carry called Chief Cody back. I'm like, what are you talking about? And he said, Well, I believe that I believe that somebody stoleen your mail. Cody told her, someone had gotten a hold of her driving records and then gone to a state website. And they accessed your case files and had downloaded that information. I said, who is today And he said Phil is Sorn. A reporter for the Marion County Record. This just infuriated you. Yeah, of course it did Jessica confirms with Carrie. Were you driving on a suspended license car I was. But for Carrie, that still wouldn't justify the paper committing a crime against her. like the police chief was now telling her that they had. I asked her, did you file a complaint? And she said, yes, I did Because after he called me and told me this happened, he told me he needed something in writing from me He directed her to file the complaint accccording to Kerry. Yes. This is completely at odds with what Chief Cody has been saying He told The Washington Post in an interview, quote, How am I supposed to look the other way when I have a victim who says, arere you going to do anything about this? As Carrie says to Jessica in her wicker chair on the porch. I think people very much believe that I filed a complaint. I demanded that the raid happen, that I was in cahoots with the chief. She told me she had no idea that there was going to be a raid. Cody did say that he was seeking a warrant In my pe brain, I did not In no instance did I equate that to a raid biggest reason for wanting to sit down with us, I think is that she was tired of the narrative being controlled by Gdy and Cody. he was just looking into a tip. Jessica asked Carry to see the text Cody center during this whole back and forth to verify what she's saying Carrie says she doesn't have them anymore unfortunately A little odd But a week or so later, Jessica gets a hold of an affidavit from Gidedy and Cody And sure enough. It was in his affidavit that he called Care Newell and informed her that she had been the victim of a crime Some journalists with Marion County record had obtained her information He told her this was illegal and that they didn't have any right to access that information. F weeks after she first throde into Marion Jessica has a big story. Senior investigator Jessica McMaster dug deeper. She uncovered a series of events that led to that high profile raid. F find in a story than when Global started with a bitter divorce and small town feuds. After the unprecedented raid, Karrie Newell has been called a killer, a fascist even Hitler. But now she wonders if she's a pawn What do you wish people knew about all of this The truth Gidedy and Cody orchestrated the raids. But why Why did he do it You know, the newspaper had told us, We had been investigating Gidedy and Cody. We were working on a story about him. They told me that the first day I was there. This remember was a possible explanation that had gone through Eric's head as the officers were foraging through his house Pretty quickly after Gidty and Cody started in his new job in Marion The record had learned that he was not going to be the most forthright police chief. There had been a procedure where every week and all the towns in our area, Hillsboro, peeabuddy, so on, They'd give us a little bloter narrative of what their officers had done for the past week along with copies of the offense reports and the accident reports, which are open public documents And they give it to us every week He refused to do so. When they first reported that Cody would be Marion's new chief of police The paper had been bombarded with warnings about him from people who knew Cody during his time as a cop in Kansas City, where Jessica's from. And according to Eric, the allegations they were hearing They were bad. Demeaning comments about female officers H seexual harassment. running over a dead body at a crime scene, a person who had to his suicide and he ran over their body He reportedly told when he was accused of sexual misconduct, They were going to transfer him to the dispatch section and we have a quote from him saying that I'm just going to find the skinniest and prettiest dispatcher in. Wow. He was not a good guy. Eric's team hadn't published this yet. They were still reporting. They had started putting some of the allegations to Cody. T threatened to sue, had his attorney call us blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So that's the beef that was ratcheting up between the newspaper and the police chief at the very moment when Care Newell', ex best friend Center driving info to the record. Here's something else though, that Jessica discovers A kicker, if you will, when Eric's reporter got the tip about Care's suspended license Eric worried that maybe the way Carrie's driving record had been obtained by her ex husband or by her ex best friend who been a nine hundred ele oneven dispatcher that maybe they'd gotten it illegally somehow. And so instead of publishing the info on carry Eric alerted the police Eric. was the one who told Chief Cody about the fact that Carrie's driving record was circulating around And Chief Cody then used it and Carrie to go after Eric This wasn't about searching for anything This was about trying to embarrass us trying to harass us. This was intimidation. Pure and simple. They bragged before the raid that this was going to be the biggest raid in the history of Marion County At this point in Jessica's investigation The county attorney has resinded the warrants, saying they weren't valid An officer who'd been sent the day of the raids to Eric's and his mom's house, who'd refused to go in because he knew it was wrong has resigned from the department in protest record and other outlets are now publishing their findings about Gidey and Cody's time at the Kansas City PD. allegations of sexual harassment of running over a corpse. The record based their reporting on conversations with seven of his former colleagues But Cody is still in office, still presiding over the Marion pololice powerful position in a town of two thousand people. Eric is starting to consider his recourse He's looking into suing the city and Cody. And then one night as she's getting ready for bed Jessica gets a call from Kare Newell. I just remember it was late. And she said, Well, you asked me if I had that text message with Gideon Cody where he said that, you know, the newspaper had committed a crime against me, and I told you I didn't have them anymore. And she said, The reason I don't have that text message anymore is because the police chief asked me to delete those. And I thought, oh boy, After Joanne Meyer died and the raids blew up into a national story Chief Cody had asked a key witness to delete text messages between her and him. to destroy evidence that he had initiated the raids. You got out of bed? I got out of bed. And I asked her Well, what was in her text messages? And she says, it was nothing. She said that he didn't want her she kind of indicated to me that he was a little flirty with her at times, that if people got their text messages, He didn't want them to get the wrong impression because she sent him a smile emoji. The way she was explaining to me was like she wasn't sure that it was that big of a deal that she wanted to be honest with me since she withheld that information from me earlier assured her, this say iss a big deal Anytime a police chief asks a witness to potentially delete evidence, that's a big deal, potentially a criminal deal that also highlights There's some level of dishonesty with this police chief So on its face It was just bad. It didn't look good for Cody And she says, but you can't tell anybody this, I want this off the record. I just don't want anybody to know And so I went to bed and by the next day, she changed her mind How did you verify that this had happened if she deleted the messages I did say to her, have you had any discussions about this? Did he send you a text asking you to delete the texts? thingsings of that nature? And she says, No, I don't have anything like that. And then she called me a day or two later And she said, Cody just called over here. to the cafe I'm going to talk to him about these text messages. Carrie starts texting with the chief, says she's worried she might get in trouble for deleting the text messages, like he asked text messaged her back saying something, you know, quit being paranoid. He says, our phones are moot. He used the word moot And then he confirmed what she told me on the phone earlier saying that he didn't want people to get the wrong impression because she sent him a smile emoji. Jessica has it Scoop number two. New tonight, a key witness in the raids on a Kansas newspaper accuses Marion pololice chief Gideon Cody of asking her to delete text messages. According to Newell, she deleted the text messages at the chief's behest. I did mention that I didn't know the necessity of that because there was nothing inappropriate to text messages. Newell says the chief asked her to delete their alleged text messages after the raids as rumors began to circulate about Newell and Cody's relationship Which Newell says is platonic. He said, it just kind of removes the element of people being able to ask. I did delete those messages against my better judgment and instantly regretted it What did you think when you saw that reporting from Jess? First of all I thought Jess had got a good story. I mean, that was that she'd gotten something that we hadn't been able to get. I suspected that there had been much communication that went on this way The destruction of messages I'd assumed this all along becausecause we' made an open records request for these messages And we got stonewalled We're still suing on that open records request. But it was nice to have the admission that Cody had told her to destroy it Within days of Jessica's report, Chief Cody resigned prorosecutors charged him with obstruction of justice, a felony He's out on Bond, living in Hawaii last, I heard His trial is set for August He didn't respond to my multiple requests for comment Jessica, were these criminal charges a result of your reporting Yes, it was. This is the only thing that they got them on The charges were for pressuring Karry Newell to delete the texts, not for the raids themselves The prosecutors really acknowledged that