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Police raid of Kansas newspaper comes under criticism

MARION, Kan. - A small central Kansas police department is facing a torrent of criticism for raiding a local newspaper’s office and the home of its owner and publisher, seizing computers and cellphones, and, in the publisher’s view, stressing his 98-year-old mother enough to cause her weekend death.

Several press freedom watchdogs condemned the Marion Police Department’s actions as a blatant violation of the U.S. Constitution’s protection for a free press. The Marion County Record’s editor and publisher, Eric Meyer, worked with his staff Sunday to reconstruct stories, ads and other materials for its next edition Wednesday, even as he took time in the afternoon to provide a local funeral home with information about his mother, Joan, the paper’s co-owner.

A search warrant tied Friday morning raids, led by Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody, to a dispute between the newspaper and a local restaurant owner, Kari Newell. She is accusing the newspaper of invading her privacy and illegally accessing information about her and her driving record and suggested that the newspaper targeted her after she threw Meyer and a reporter out of restaurant during a political event.

While Meyer saw Newell’s complaints - which he said were untrue - as prompting the raids, he also believes the newspaper’s aggressive coverage of local politics and issues played a role. He said the newspaper was examining Cody’s past work with the Kansas City, Missouri, police as well.

“This is the type of stuff that, you know, that Vladimir Putin does, that Third World dictators do,” Meyer said during an interview in his office. “This is Gestapo tactics from World War II.”

Cody said Sunday that the raid was legal and tied to an investigation.

The raids occurred in a town of about 1,900 people, nestled among rolling prairie hills, about 150 miles southwest of Kansas City, making the small weekly newspaper the latest to find itself in the headlines and possibly targeted for its reporting.

Last year in New Hampshire, the publisher of a weekly newspaper accused the state attorney general’s office of government overreach after she was arrested for allegedly publishing advertisements for local races without properly marking them as political advertising. In Las Vegas, former Democratic elected official Robert Telles is scheduled to face trial in November for allegedly fatally stabbing Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German after German wrote articles critical of Telles and his managerial conduct.

Meyer said that on Friday, one Record reporter suffered an injury to a finger when Cody wrested her cellphone out of her hand, according to the report. The newspaper’s surveillance video showed officers reading that reporter her rights while Cody watched, though she wasn’t arrested or detained. Newspaper employees were hustled out of the building while the search continued for more than 90 minutes, according to the footage.

Eric Meyer, the editor and publisher of the Marion County Record, answers questions about a raid by local police and sheriff's deputies on his newspaper's newsroom and his home, Sunday, Aug. 13, 2023, in Marion, Kan.. The officers seized computers and cell phones and took photos of Meyer's personal financial records. (AP Photo/John Hanna)
The last printed issue of the Marion County Record sits in a display in its office, Sunday, Aug. 13, 2023, in Marion, Kan. Editor and Publisher Eric Meyer says the newspaper will publish its regular weekly issue on Aug. 16, 2023, despite a raid by local law enforcement officers and the seizure of computers and cell phones. (AP Photo/John Hanna)
The offices of the Marion County Record sit across from the Marion County Courthouse in Marion, Kan., Sunday, Aug. 13, 2023, in Marion, Kansas. Law enforcement officers raided the newspaper office and seized computers and employee cell phones in what Editor and Publisher Eric Meyer believes is an attempt to intimidate the newspaper as it examines local issues, including the police chief's background. (AP Photo/John Hanna)
An empty spot on reporter Phyllis Zorn's desk shows where the tower for her computer sat before law enforcement officers seized it in a raid on the Marion County Record, Sunday, Aug. 13, 2023, in Marion County, Kan. Editor and Publisher Eric Meyer says the raid was designed to intimidate the newspaper as it investigated local issues. (AP Photo/John Hanna)