Police Defend Raid on Kansas Newspaper Despite Adverse Reaction to "Brazen Violation of Press Freedom"

Law enforcement seized computers and reporters' personal cell phones as a part of an investigation into alleged identity theft

Photo byRoman KraftonUnsplash

Marion police on Saturday defended their unprecedented raid on a newspaper office and the publisher’s home by pointing to a loophole in federal law that protects journalists from searches and seizures.

Law enforcement raided the Marion County Record on Friday, seizing computers and reporters’ personal cellphones as part of an investigation into alleged identity theft of a restaurant operator who feuded with the newspaper. Officers also raided the home of publisher Eric Meyer, who lived with his 98-year-old mother, Joan.

The newspaper reported Saturday that Joan Meyer, “stressed beyond her limits and overwhelmed by hours of shock and grief,” had collapsed and died.

The newspaper said it was planning to file a federal lawsuit. Free press attorneys and advocacy groups rejected the police explanation for the raid.

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, posted online by the Kansas Reflector, 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."

“It appears like the police department is trying to criminalize protected speech in an attempt to sidestep federal law,” said Jared McClain, an attorney for the Institute for Justice, a libertarian law firm.

“The First Amendment ensures that publications like the Marion County Record can investigate public officials without fear of reprisal,” McClain said. “It chills the important function of journalism when police raid a newsroom, storm the homes of reporters, seize their property and gain access to their confidential sources. That’s precisely why we must hold accountable officers who retaliate against people who exercise their First Amendment rights.”

The Marion Police Department, in a statement posted Saturday on the department’s Facebook page, acknowledged that the federal Privacy Protection Act protects journalists from searches. However, the department argued, the law doesn’t apply when journalists are suspected of criminal activity.

“The victim asks that we do all the law allows to ensure justice is served,” the statement said.

The alleged victim is Kari Newell, who owns a restaurant in Marion and was trying to obtain a liquor license.

Eric Meyer, the newspaper publisher, said a confidential source had provided documentation that Newell had been convicted of drunken driving in 2008 and had driven without a license. A reporter used the KDOR website to verify that the information was accurate, but the newspaper decided not to publish a story about the information.

Instead, Eric Meyer said, he notified local police of the situation. Marion police, in coordination with state authorities, launched an investigation and alerted Newell. They obtained a search warrant, signed by Magistrate Judge Laura Viar, for evidence of identity theft and criminal use of a computer.

“Basically,” Eric Meyer said, “all the law enforcement officers on duty in Marion County, Kansas, descended on our offices today and seized our server and computers and personal cellphones of staff members all because of a story we didn’t publish.”

Newell, in her Facebook statement, said the newspaper has a “reputation of contortion,” and that “media is not exempt from the laws they blast others for not following.”

“The victim shaming culture is sad and an injustice,” Newell wrote. “I have received false reviews, nasty hateful messages and comments and borderline threats. The sheer amount of defamation and slander is overwhelming.”

Seth Stern, director of advocacy for the Freedom of the Press Foundation, said in a statement that the raid appeared to have violated federal law, the First Amendment, "and basic human decency."

"The anti-press rhetoric that's become so pervasive in this country has become more than just talk and is creating a dangerous environment for journalists trying to do their jobs," Stern said.

Meyer said he's been flooded with offers of help from press freedom groups and other news organizations. But he said what he and his staff need is more hours in the day to get their next edition put together.

Both he and Newell are contemplating lawsuits — Newell against the newspaper and Meyer against the public officials who staged the raid.

As for the criticism of the raid as a violation of First Amendment rights, Newell said her privacy rights were violated, and they are "just as important as anybody else's."