Finally! Marion police chief suspended post-raids. Newspaper owner speaks. [UPDATED]

'People buy papers to find out things that they don't know—not to just be reinforced about what they already do know'

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Marion Mayor David Mayfield and Police Chief Gideon Cody (via FB/LinkedIn)

UPDATE 10/2 at 9:24PM: Police Chief Gideon Cody has resigned, according to a report from the Marion County Record. The resignation is effective immediately.

It took 48 long days after the police raid on the Marion County Record newspaper, but Police Chief Gideon Cody was finally suspended from his job on Thursday. And just as the paper’s owner Eric Meyer learned of the long-awaited move, parts of the body cam footage taken during the raid was released to his lawyer, which confirmed the obvious: that the searches of his home and office were done under false pretenses.

The story of the gross civil rights violations took the county by storm in mid-August (in no small part thanks to this scoop of mine), and even as crews from larger national outlets have since left town, the story plays on.

I spoke with Meyer Sunday morning to get his reaction to Cody’s suspension, what it’s like being seen as the enemy of the Mayor, and the chilling effect he fears this entire saga will have on local newspapers across the country.

Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity. 

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Marisa Kabas, The Handbasket: How are you feeling now that Cody has finally been suspended?

Eric Meyer, Marion County Record: Well, I mean, it doesn't change anything. The truth of the matter is, he hadn't been doing much. Apparently he’s writing a book—or so somebody's told us—and he's been coming in at five in the morning and leaving around one in the afternoon, which is not exactly high crime times to have a police officer on duty. So, it really hasn't affected anything. We haven't seen him, he hasn't said anything to us. We haven't even seen him out in public anywhere. I mean, it's nice to know that he's not messing with things anymore. He's not having people, you know, destroy evidence or whatever else he's doing. At least that’s what they say he's doing. But other than that, it's a nice vindication.