Despite the national backlash over his police department’s raid of the office of a local newspaper and the home of its 98-year-old co-owner, who died the following day, Marion Mayor David Mayfield still isn’t “sure exactly what they did wrong.” With his Kansas town still feeling the fallout over last month’s infamous raid of the Marion County Record, Mayfield said the finger should really be pointed at the judge who initially approved the search warrants. “I mean, everybody’s looking at Marion like we’re a bunch of hicks now,” he told The Wichita Eagle. “And the police department just did what the judge allowed them to do.” Five days after Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody carried out the search and seizures, which also included Vice Mayor Ruth Herbel’s home, Marion County Attorney Joel Ensey revoked the search warrants. “Why didn’t he (Ensey) do that in the first place?” Mayfield wondered, adding that he was “perplexed” that Cody was receiving the brunt of the criticism. He also said he has no plans to suspend the police chief. Affidavits revealed that a local restaurateur’s past DUI arrest was at the center of the police raids, with Cody claiming that a reporter engaged in identity theft to obtain the driving records of businesswoman Kari Newell.
Read it at The Wichita Eagle
