A former central Kansas police chief who led a raid on a weekly newspaper last year has been charged with felony obstruction of justice. The charge alleges that he influenced a potential witness to withhold information related to an investigation into his conduct.
The charge was filed in state district court in Marion County and accuses the former police chief of persuading the witness to withhold information on the day of the raid or within the following six days. The specifics of the alleged conduct were not detailed in the charge.
Text messages between the former police chief and a business owner after the raid were referenced in a report by special prosecutors. The business owner claimed that the former police chief asked her to delete text messages between them to avoid any misconceptions about their relationship.
The raid was justified by the former police chief based on suspicions of identity theft or computer crimes by the newspaper's publisher and a reporter. However, the prosecutors' report concluded that no crimes were committed by them and that the former police chief's investigation was flawed.
Attorneys representing the former police chief in a federal lawsuit related to the raid are not representing him in the criminal case. The police body-camera footage of the raid showed the publisher's 98-year-old mother expressing distress, and she passed away the next day due to a heart attack.
The prosecutors did not find evidence to charge the former police chief or other officers involved in the raid over the woman's death. The publisher attributed her death to the stress caused by the raid.
