Gideon Cody, the police chief who raided the 2,000-circulation newspaper that wasn't even going to publish an exposé of his sexual misconduct accusation or the drink-driving past of a local politically-connected restauranteur, thereby ensuring the entire world knew about everything in intimate detail, was suspended Thursday.
Marion Mayor Dave Mayfield in a text said he suspended Chief Gideon Cody on Thursday. He declined to discuss his decision further and did not say whether Cody was still being paid.
We also got to know about the booze-soaked multi-DUI judge who signed the warrant, too. The context:
The raids came after a local restaurant owner accused the newspaper of illegally accessing information about her. A spokesman for the agency that maintains those records has said the newspaper's online search that a reporter did was likely legal even though the reporter needed personal information about the restaurant owner that a tipster provided to look up her driving record.
The newspaper's publisher Eric Meyer has said the identity theft allegations simply provided a convenient excuse for the search after his reporters had been digging for background information on Cody, who was appointed this summer.
Legal experts believe the raid on the newspaper violated a federal privacy law or a state law shielding journalists from having to identify sources or turn over unpublished material to law enforcement.
An important reminder: the distraught 98-year-old proprietor of the newspaper, Joan Meyer, died within hours of the raids. Cody Gideon and his goons killed her. Whatever consequences he faces for his unconstitutional abuse of power, it won't likely get to his culpability in her death. And so far, the consequences amount to this: he's getting paid to go on vacation.
