Police chief who ordered raid on local newspaper investigating him is out of a job days after being suspended

Gideon Cody, the police chief in Kansas who directed raids on the Marion County Record newspaper and the home of the newspaper's publisher, has resigned only days after he was suspended from his post amid swirling questions about his conduct.

Cody's resignation also comes shortly after Marion County Attorney Joel Ensey determined there was "insufficient evidence" to justify the disgraced police chief's raid and seizure of records from the county paper and the publisher's private residence. His resignation was first reported by the paper he once raided, the Marion County Record.

Body camera footage of the Aug. 11 raid recently obtained by the Associated Press through an open records request showed a police officer searching through a reporter's desk drawers with Cody. The desk belonged to a reporter investigating the police chief's background. In the clip, Cody can be heard remarking that there is a "personal file" on him.

"I don't care," Cody is heard quipping in the footage.

As he continues to search the drawers and desk, he bends over at one point to get a closer look, but another officer holding a clipboard then obstructs the view of exactly what the police chief is doing.

The Marion County Sheriff's Office was only able to obtain the search warrants from a judge because it claimed officers were investigating evidence of an identity theft ring and other unlawful acts concerning computers.

According to affidavits first obtained by CNN this August, Cody told the court he thought the raids were necessary because he believed Marion County Record reporter Phyllis Zorn had illicitly procured driving records of a local business owner in advance of the newspaper publishing an article on her.

The raid of the paper's co-owner and publisher Eric Meyer occurred the same day. Meyer's 98-year-old mother, Joan, was at home when police showed up. She died 24 hours after the incident and Meyer says his mother's death was caused in part by the police raid stressing her out.

Police also searched the home of Ruth Herbel, a councilwoman who police alleged may also have  a copy of the driving record document in question.

Meyer has been transparent about why he thinks Cody may not care for him or other reporters at the paper: They had started digging into allegations of Cody's misconduct, NPR reported.

It was protocol for the paper to do "routine background checks" on incoming police chiefs, Meyer said.

Cody had left the Kansas City Police Department in April and took over the position in Marion County in June. When the paper started to report on Cody, the tips started flowing in and reporters started to investigate, Meyer said.

The police chief was asked for comment at one point, the publisher recalled, but Cody allegedly told them he had only thing to say: He was ready to sue them.

Although the Marion County Record had obtained tips and was probing Cody's background, the newspaper hadn't yet printed an article containing any allegations against Cody at the time of the raid.

In the fallout of the raid, which sparked widespread debate about First Amendment rights and press freedoms, Meyer has been emphatic that he doesn't know if the raid was directly connected to the digging his paper started to do into Cody.

The police in Marion did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Law&Crime on Wednesday.

Before his resignation this week, Cody was suspended by Marion Mayor David Mayfield. The suspension was indefinite, according to the New York Times.

Questions about why Cody was permitted to come on as chief after leaving the Kansas City Police Department have mounted in the raid's aftermath. The Kansas City Star reported that Cody was accused of making derogatory and sexist comments at KCPD.