A rural Kansas county has agreed to pay a little more than $3 million and apologize over a law enforcement raid on a small-town weekly newspaper in August 2023 that sparked an outcry over press freedom.
Marion County sheriff’s officers were involved in the raid on the Marion County Record and helped draft search warrants used by Marion city police to enter the newspaper’s offices,the publisher’s home and the home of a local city council member.
“They intentionally wanted to harass us for reporting the news, and you’re not supposed to do that in a democracy,” the editor and publisher, Eric Meyer, said Tuesday. He added he hoped the payment was large enough to discourage similar actions against other news organizations in the future.
The raid prompted five federal lawsuits against the county, the city of Marion and local officials. Meyer’s 98-year-old mother Joan, the paper’s co-owner, died of a heart attack the next day, something he blames on the stress of the raid. Meyer had been “stressed beyond her limits and overwhelmed by hours of shock and grief,” the newspaper said at the time.
During the raid, authorities seized cellphones and computers from the newsroom and rifled through reporters’ desks. Search warrants linked the raid to a dispute between a local restaurant owner and the newspaper, which had obtained a copy of her driving record while reporting on her request for a city liquor licence. The raid also came after the newspaper had dug into the background of the police chief at the time who led the raid.
The raid triggered a national debate about press freedom focused on Marion, a town of about 1,900 people set among rolling prairie hills some 150 miles southwest of Kansas City, Missouri. Police body camera footage from Meyer’s home showed his mother, who lived with him, visibly upset and telling officers, “Get out of my house!”
An attorney for the newspaper, Bernie Rhodes, released a copy Tuesday of the five-page agreement resolving legal claims against the county. Claims against the city and city officials have not been settled,and Meyer said he believes they will face a larger judgment once those claims are eventually resolved.
Marion County’s administrator and attorneys for the city and county did not promptly return messages seeking comment.
Raid’s legality was questioned
Under the judgment, the estate of Meyer’s mother will receive $1 million. Meyer, two former Record reporters and the paper’s business manager will split $1.1 million, and ruth Herbel, the former city council member, will receive $650,000. Meyer said he’s considering a fund to ensure that the paper remains financially viable or a program to encourage young journalists to work in communities like his.
“The goal isn’t to get the money. The money is symbolic,” Meyer said. “The press has basically been under assault.”
Three days after the raid, the local prosecutor said there wasn’t enough evidence to justify it. Experts said Marion’s police chief at the time, Gideon Cody, was on legally shaky ground when he ordered it, and a former top federal prosecutor for Kansas suggested it might have been a criminal violation of civil rights.
Kansas County to Pay $325,000 Over Police Raid on Newspaper
marion, Kansas – Marion County, Kansas, has agreed to pay $325,000 to the owners and a former city council member affected by a controversial police raid on the Marion County Record newspaper and their homes in August 2023. The settlement, approved by the Marion County Commission on Monday, includes a formal apology from Sheriff Jeff Soyez.
The raid, which involved the seizure of computers, cellphones, and reporting materials, sparked widespread criticism from press freedom advocates. It stemmed from an investigation into how the newspaper obtained information about the driving record of a local restaurant owner. Former city council member Ruth Herbel was accused of illegally sharing the record with the city manager via a cellphone screenshot.
Though, a review by two special prosecutors later revealed that neither the Record, its staff, nor Herbel committed any crimes prior to the raid. The prosecutors also found the search warrants were based on an “inadequate investigation” and contained inaccurate information, rendering the searches legally unjustified. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kansas-county-settles-with-newspaper-over-police-raid/
The fallout from the raid led to the resignation of Police Chief Gideon Cody in October 2023. Cody was afterward charged with felony obstruction of justice and is scheduled to stand trial in Febuary 2025 in Marion County. He is accused of attempting to persuade a witness to withhold information from investigators looking into his conduct. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kansas-county-settles-with-newspaper-over-police-raid/
The obstruction of justice charge stems from text messages exchanged between Cody and the restaurant owner following the raid. The owner stated that Cody requested she delete their text message history, citing concerns about how their professional and platonic relationship might be perceived.
Sheriff Soyez issued a statement expressing “sincere regrets” for the Sheriff’s Office’s involvement in drafting and executing the search warrants.
eric Meyer,publisher of the Marion County Record,released a statement emphasizing the significance of the admission of wrongdoing. “In our democracy,the press is a watchdog against abuse. If the watchdog itself is the target of abuse,and all it does is roll over,democracy suffers,” Meyer said. https://marionrecord.com/