Marion prosecutor, wary of liability, wrote self-serving memos after raid on Kansas newspaper
Marion County Attorney Joel Ensey received immediate advice from the special prosecutor who later cleared police in the raid

BY: SHERMAN SMITH - AUGUST 16, 2024 10:48 AM

TOPEKA — A day after police raided the Marion County Record, Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett expressed concerns about whether a crime had been committed, the evidence seized by police and that the local prosecutor could be held personally liable for a violation of constitutional rights. ... Bennett texted Marion County Attorney Joel Ensey and talked to him about his concerns. Bennett agreed to review the search warrants and advised Ensey he should return everything police had taken during the raid.

Those behind-the-scenes conversations set in motion an effort by Ensey to create a narrative that he wasn’t responsible for the raid. Ensey also asked Bennett and Riley County District Attorney Barry Wilkerson to take over the case as special prosecutors.

Despite Bennett’s initial concerns about the legality of the raid, he and Wilkerson concluded in a report they released last week that police had not violated any laws when they unwittingly fabricated a criminal charge and conducted an illegal raid. Instead, Bennett and Wilkerson decided former Police Chief Gideon Cody only committed obstruction of justice after the raid when he asked a witness to delete text messages.

Bennett and Wilkerson attempted to redirect criticism from Ensey and others who were involved in the raid by placing much of the blame on Cody. But recent court filings highlight Ensey’s involvement in the investigation before the raid, his handling of the search warrants, his post-raid conversations with Bennett, and the self-serving claims he made in emails he sent to himself.

{snip}