Staff writer
Four months after Colorado Bureau of Investigation stepped in to investigate Aug. 11 raids on the Marion County Record, a spokeswoman for Kansas Bureau of Investigation said Tuesday that CBI’s investigation is nearing its conclusion.
“The KBI asked the CBI to take over the criminal investigation occurring in Marion County in an effort to ensure impartiality and transparency,” spokesman Melissa Underwood said Tuesday. “Currently, the CBI’s investigation is nearing completion. Later this month, CBI agents will present case facts to the special prosecutors in Kansas who will make charging decisions. The investigation is ongoing.”
In December, CBI agents questioned Record employees and several other city and county residents, including Ruth Herbel, the now-former city council member whose home was invaded along with the home of Record owners Joan and Eric Meyer.
The agent in charge, John Zamora, said at the time that none of the people being interviewed were targets of the investigation, which he said focused not on allegations of identity theft but on procedures used in obtaining warrants for the raid.
Questioned were Ryan Newell, whose estranged wife, Kari, was seeking a caterer’s liquor license in August when she was told by now-resigned police chief Gideon Cody that her driver’s license record had been sent to the Record and Herbel.
She believed Cody’s statement that a Record reporter had taken a letter from Kansas Department of Revenue out of her mailbox and later complained to city council members that Herbel was “vile” and the Record had “stolen” her identity and sent her driver’s record to Herbel.
Also questioned was county resident Pam Maag, who admittedly provided to information to both the Record and Herbel.
It is not known whether CBI agents questioned then-mayor David Mayfield, who directed Cody to investigate Herbel and the newspaper; Cody; interim police chief Zach Hudlin; sheriff Jeff Soyez; detective Aaron Christner; county attorney Joel Ensey; or magistrate judge Laura Viar.