[nolamark]

My understanding is that there were no changes for the actual raid, but "with felony interference in the judicial process" due to actions taken after the raid.

"In Monday’s report, prosecutors highlight a section of state statutes indicating that charges against Cody might be related to statements made by former Marion restaurant owner Kari Newell that Cody urged her to destroy evidence of text messages the two had exchanged."

http://marionrecord.com. Paper cleared; ex-chief faces felony charge

https://kansasreflector.com/2024/08/13/former-marion-police-...

A conviction would likely only result in probation for a low level felony he is no longer in a position to repeat offend in.

https://www.kansas.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/dion-lefler... "We can safely assume the video recording is accidental for two reasons: 1) At the start of the conversation, Cody warns Newell, “We can’t write anything” to each other and she replies “Yeah, I know, I understand.” And 2) Immediately after he hangs up, Cody video-recorded himself taking a leak in the men’s room at a Casey’s General Store."

https://www.kake.com/features/special-content/untold-story-k... "The day after we completed this interview, Newell revealed the chief had asked her to delete text messages between them after rumors began that they were romantically involved. She says there's no truth to those rumors, but she deleted the texts anyway - then immediately regretted it."

[qingcharles]

It's hard to criminally charge someone for non-violently violating someone's constitutional rights.

You can, perhaps, use an "Official Misconduct" statute as the basis for the charge, but I've not heard of it done.

There are federal criminal statutes for violently violating someone's constitutional rights under the US constitution.

Edit: I'm probably wrong:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41241327

[throwaway290]

As non American it looks to me like this: you can't decide to arrest police chief for doing something but you can investigate it. He obstructed investigating, he gets a charge. Investigation ends, maybe other charges.

I guess it can be tricky to prosecute local police because it has to be interference from outside and people don't like that?

[qingcharles]

It's just super hard to prosecute police, because who do you report the misconduct to? If you go to the officer's police dept, they laugh at you. If you go to the local prosecutor -- well, they need the police to give them cases and evidence -- they laugh at you. If you try to go to the Sheriff, they laugh at you. If you go to the State Police or the FBI they tell you they don't have the resources and you need to go the police dept or prosecutor.

It's an unwinnable game. The only way to get traction is with media coverage.