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

By Sherman Smith
Kansas Reflector

TOPEKA — The Kansas Reflector and other news outlets have asked a district judge to throw out former Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody’s attempt to exclude 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 those who saw the messages to accuse the two of having an affair, according to court evidence earlier this month.

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

Lyndon Vix, a Wichita attorney, filed the suit on behalf of the Kansas Reflector, 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 underscores the public interest in Cody’s prosecution stemming from his attempt to defy state and federal protections for journalists in the Aug. 11, 2023, raid. The photos and videos are part of public interest reporting in the case, they say news institutions.

A Kansas Supreme Court rule gives the news media the right to take photos and videos during court proceedings.

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

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

Cody argued that the presence of the cameras would violate his Sixth Amendment right to due process.

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 claim was submitted frequently”.