The ex-chief of a Kansas police unit that carried out a raid on the office of a newspaper last year is now facing criminal charges, officials have said.
Gideon Cody, former chief of the Marion Police Department, was formally charged with obstruction of justice on Monday.
Police raided the office of the Marion County Record in August 2023, seizing equipment and personal cell phones from staff, in a move that sparked a national debate on press freedoms in the US.
At the time, police had accused a journalist at the newspaper of committing identity theft while reporting on a local business owner, but prosecutors have since found no evidence of wrongdoing by the newspaper.
A 124-page report on the incident released last week by special prosecutors said the raid was carried out after an “inadequate investigation” by the Marion Police Department.
“Small town familiarity explains but does not excuse the inadequate investigation that gave rise to the search warrant applications in this matter,” the report said.
The report also accused Mr Cody of withholding information from officials investigating the raid, including a written statement by the business owner that was given to police prior.
Mr Cody resigned as chief of the Marion Police Department in October.
Police said they carried out raids at multiple locations, including the office and the publisher’s home, to investigate how the newspaper obtained the driving record of a local business owner. The owner was in the process of obtaining a liquor license, and had previously been convicted of driving under the influence.
Prosecutors said in the report that Mr Cody believed incorrectly that reporters had impersonated the business owner to access the records.
The newspaper said the reporter had obtained the information through an online database.
Mr Cody and other officials, as well the city of Marion, have since been sued by the newspaper’s parent company, its publisher Eric Meyer, and current and former staffers over the raid.
Former reporter Deb Gruver reached a $235,000 (£184,000) settlement in June in a lawsuit against Mr Cody. She claimed he injured her hand while forcibly taking her cell phone during the raid.
Less than a week after the raid, police were ordered to return the cell phones, hard drives and computers taken other devices that were seized, saying there was insufficient evidence to justify the searches.
Read More: Ex-police chief charged after raid on local Kansas newspaper
