Kansas Police Facing Lawsuit After Conducting ‘Illegal’ Raid Against Small-Town Paper
Last year, Kansas police raided the offices of a small local newspaper, seizing computers, the newspaper’s file server, and even personal cellphones. Police also raided the home of the newspaper’s owners, Eric and Joan Meyer.
On Monday, one of the paper’s owners filed a lawsuit against the police, arguing that the raids clearly violated the First and Fourth Amendments—and even led directly to the stress-induced death of the paper’s 98-year-old co-owner.
“No probable cause, nor even arguable probable cause, existed to issue the search warrants for the Marion County Record newsroom and the home of Joan and Eric Meyer,” the lawsuit reads. “And no reasonable police officer could have believed there was probable cause to issue the search warrants.”
On August 11th, 2023, police in Marion, Kansas—a small town of less than 2,000 people—raided the offices of the Marion County Record. According to the complaint, police seized computers and other property from the offices, and forced staff to stand outside during the raid, even as the temperature neared 100 degrees. Officers attempted to question newspaper staff, but body camera footage shows them struggling to remember the Miranda warning.
After searching the Record‘s offices, police went to the home of Eric and Joan Meyer, the paper’s owners. Eric, who co-owned the paper with his mother, 98-year-old Joan, objected to the search. When Eric attempted to call his attorney on his cell phone, police demanded Eric hand over his phone.
In body camera footage, Eric claims that the search is retaliation by the Sheriff, Gideon Cody. “You’re going to get a suit back against false search. You understand that?” he said. “Do you understand that Officer Cody, who filled this out; we have a whole bunch of damaging information about him we have not publ
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