Kansas news agencies ask judge to allow cameras in former Marion police chief’s courtroom

By Sherman Smith
Kansas Reflector

TOPEKA – The Kansas Reflector and other news outlets have urged a district judge to dismiss former Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody’s attempt to ban cameras from court proceedings in his criminal case.

Cody, who led the raid on the Marion County Record last year, faces a minor 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 that Cody’s concern “that the presence of cameras in the courtroom could somehow affect the defendant’s right to a fair trial has long been discredited.”

Lyndon Vix, a Wichita-based attorney, filed the motion 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 outlines the public interest in prosecuting Cody, which arises from his attempt to circumvent state and federal protections for journalists during the raid on August 11, 2023. Photos and videos are part of reporting that serves the public interest in the case, the news agencies argue.

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

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

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

Cody argued that the presence of cameras was a violation of his right to a fair trial under the Sixth Amendment.

But, Vix wrote in his response on Tuesday, there is no known case in Kansas “in which an appellate court has concluded that a defendant was not given a fair trial solely because of the publicity of the case, although that objection has been frequently raised.”