WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) - Three affidavits detail the reasons Chief Gideon Cody gave for requesting search warrants for the Marion County Record, the home of the paper’s co-owners Eric and Joan Meyer and the home of vice mayor Ruth Herbel on August 11.
The attorney for the Marion County Record, Bernie Rhodes, said the affidavits were not filed with the 8th Judicial District until three days after the raid at the newspaper and two homes. Rhodes said a document he received from the court signed by Judge Laura Viar dated August 11 at 3:12 p.m. said the court could not provide the probable cause affidavit at that time because it hadn’t been filed. The documents detail why Chief Cody believed the paper had illegally obtained Kari Newell’s driving record from the Kansas Department of Revenue.
In the affidavits for the paper and Meyer’s residence, Chief Cody stated he received an email from Eric Meyer on August 4. “In the email he states that he received a copy of someone’s private Department of Revenue Records. In the email, he alleged possible police misconduct regarding how the Department of Revenue Record was obtained.”
Chief Cody goes on to say in the documents that his investigation revealed the driving record was downloaded directly from the Department of Revenue. Chief Cody wrote in the affidavits, “The Department of Revenue advised the individuals who downloaded the information were Phyllis Zorn and ‘Kari Newell’. Kari’s name was listed three minutes after Phyllis Zorn downloaded the information according to the Kansas Department of Revenue. Downloading the document involved either impersonating the victim or by lying about the reasons why the record was being sought. Based on the options available on the Kansas DOR records website.”
Zorn is a reporter at the Marion County Record. In multiple media interviews, Eric Meyer stated that his newsroom received a tip from a source in a Facebook message that alleged Newell was driving without a license and had a previous DUI conviction. Newell was applying for a liquor license from the city, but Kansas law states you can’t have a felony DUI conviction to obtain a liquor license. Meyer said the reporter verified the information from the source, but the paper’s intent was not to publish a story, and Meyer passed the information onto Chief Cody. The paper published a story on August 9 after Newell claimed that the Record obtained her personal information illegally at a city council meeting.
Chief Cody then goes on to say in the affidavit that he got a written statement from Newell after she said she spoke with Meyer: “In the statement she says that on a phone call from 08/07/2023 at or around 1901 hours, Eric Meyer admitted to her an employee of his Phyllis Zorn downloaded the private DOR record information and that is why there would be no story.”
Chief Cody said that accessing the DOR record was a violation of the Drivers’ Privacy Protection Act of 1994, and that was grounds for probable cause that the crimes of identity theft and unlawful acts concerning computers were committed, he writes in the application for a search warrant at the paper and Meyer’s home.
On August 16, Marion County Attorney Joel Ensey withdrew the search warrant, citing a lack of evidence to support the alleged crimes and the seizure of the items. The items taken were handed over to the attorney for the Marion County Record to be analyzed.
Since Monday, August 14, the KBI took over the investigation and said on August 16 in a statement the investigation remains open, but it will continue without accessing the items Marion Police took from the paper and the homes.
Rhodes said in a statement that what Zorn did is legal under the law, and KDOR is a public website. The statement said Kansas Criminal Justice Information System was not accessed.
“The very first sentence of the Kansas statute on disclosure of driver’s licenses states: “All motor vehicle records shall be subject to the provisions of the open records act.” Zorn had every right, under both Kansas law and U.S. law, to access Newell’s driver’s record to verify the information she had been provided by a source. She was not engaged in “identity theft” or “unauthorized computer access” but was doing her job.
That is undoubtedly why the Marion County Attorney has now withdrawn the search warrants because, to use his own words, “insufficient evidence exists to establish a legally sufficient nexus between this alleged crime and the places searched and the items seized.”
As I have said numerous times in the last week, it is not a crime in America to be a reporter. These affidavits prove that the only so-called “crime” Chief Cody was investigating was being a reporter.”
Bernie Rhodes
The other probable cause affidavit provided is for the home of Ruth Herbel for identity theft and official misconduct. Chief Cody said in the detail of the investigation, he reached out to Marion City Administrator Brogan Jones on August 7, stating there should be an internal investigation. Jones responded that he was aware of the DOR record because Herbel had sent him a screenshot of the record. Jones stated Herbel wanted to deny Newell’s liquor license request because of the DOR record.
The affidavit includes an email Jones sent to Marion Mayor David Mayfield dated August 4, which said the information about Newell’s record was posted on social media by Herbel’s friend, and she inquired about it. Jones wrote to the mayor that Chief Cody and Marion Police would not be looking into Newell’s record for the license’s purpose, which was for the state to oversee.
This is developing and will be updated.
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