Kansas police chief who led raid on small weekly newspaper has resigned, official says

abcnews.go.com:

The police chief who led an August raid on a small weekly newspaper in central Kansas has resigned, days after he was suspended from his post

TOPEKA, Kan. — The police chief who led an August raid on a small weekly newspaper in central Kansas resigned Monday, just days after he was suspended from his post and following the release of body camera video of the raid showing an officer searching the desk of a reporter investigating the chief's past.

Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody's resignation was confirmed to The Associated Press both by Mayor Dave Mayfield and City Council member Ruth Herbel, following an announcement by Mayfield at Monday's council meeting. Mayfield had suspended Cody on Thursday for reasons that have not been made public. In a text message Monday night to the AP, he said he couldn't answer questions about the chief's resignation “as it is a personnel matter.”

Cody stepped down weeks after a local prosecutor said that there wasn’t sufficient evidence to justify the search of the Marion County Record or searches at the same time of the publisher's home and Herbel's home.

The search of the newspaper put Marion, a town of 1,900 residents some 150 miles (240 kilometers) southwest of Kansas City, at the center of a fierce national debate over press freedoms and cast an international spotlight on Cody and his tactics. Cody faces one federal lawsuit, and others are expected.

Cody did not immediately return a telephone message seeking comment about his resignation. His resignation initially was reported by the Marion County Record and the Wichita Eagle.

“It’s long overdue. You know, we had to wait more than six weeks to get him suspended,” said Eric Meyer, the Record's editor and publisher. “It kind of leads