Kansas news outlets ask judge to allow cameras in court for former Marion police chief

Copies of the Aug. 16 edition of the Marion County Record rest on a countertop in the newspaper office. Staffers pulled an all-nighter to get the newspaper out after their equipment was seized by law enforcement. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

TOPEKA — Kansas Reflector and other news outlets have asked a district judge to reject former Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody’s attempt to banish cameras from court proceedings in his criminal case.

Cody, who led the raid on the Marion County Record last year, faces a low-level felony charge for telling a woman after the raid to delete text messages the two had exchanged. The woman told investigators she agreed to delete the texts because she didn’t want people who saw the messages to accuse the two of having an affair, according to evidence presented to the court earlier this month.

In a motion filed Tuesday in Marion County District Court , 14 news outlets argue Cody’s concern “that the presence of cameras in the courtroom will somehow prejudice a defendant’s right to a fair trial has long since been discredited.”

Lyndon Vix, a Wichita-based attorney, filed the motion on behalf of Kansas Reflector, the Marion County Record, Kansas City Star, Wichita Eagle, KCUR, Kansas City Beacon, Wichita Beacon, KAKE, KCTV, KMBC, KSHB, KSNW, KWCH and WDAF.

The court filing outlines the public interest in the criminal prosecution of Cody, stemming from his attempt to defy state and federal protections for journalists in the Aug. 11, 2023, raid. Photos and video are part of the reporting that serves the public interest in the case, the news outlets argue.

A Kansas Supreme Court rule provides news media with a right to take photos and video during court proceedings.

“The irony of this defendant seeking to limit media access in this case is striking,” Vix wrote in the court filing. “The genesis of the case was defendant’s decision to go to the war with a member of the media. Now, when he is called to at least partially account for his actions, he wants the media to have less access to his proceedings than they would have in any other defendant’s case. If there was ever a defendant who was not entitled to special consideration in this regard, it is Gideon Cody.”

Cody is scheduled for a first appearance Oct. 7 before District Judge Ryan Rosauer. KSNW on Aug. 13 asked the court’s media coordinator to bring cameras and recording equipment into the courtroom. Cody’s attorneys objected to the request in an Aug. 20 court filing.

Cody argued that the presence of cameras would violate his Sixth Amendment right to a fair trial.

But, Vix wrote in his response Tuesday, there is no known case in Kansas “in which an appellate court has concluded that a criminal defendant failed to receive a fair trial because of publicity alone, even though the contention has been frequently advanced.”