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Writers and Editors (RSS feed)

About that police raid on The Marion Record (a weekly Kansas newspaper)

Originally published 5-7-24

As you may recall, law enforcement officers in a rural Kansas county raided the offices and homes of the editors of a local newspaper, seizing electronic newsgathering equipment and reporting materials -- resulting in a nationwide uproar over the threats to our First Amendment principles of a free press. Following are some articles about the incident.


---A conversation with the newspaper owner raided by cops (Marisa Kabas, The Handbasket, 8-12-23) Eric Meyer says his paper had been investigating the police chief, Gideon Cody, prior to the raids on his office and home. They did so because of a complaint by a local restaurant owner named Kari Newell. [This is the piece that took the story viral.]


---How a small-town feud in Kansas sent a shock through American journalism (Jonathan O'Connell, Paul Farhi and Sofia Andrade, Washington Post, 8-26-23. Illustrated.) A police raid without precedent on a weekly newspaper alarmed First Amendment advocates. The real story of how it happened, though, is rooted in the roiling tensions and complex history of a few key community members.

     "The emotional response to the raid was heightened by the sudden death of the editor's 98-year-old mother, who had railed furiously at the officers sorting through her belongings at their home and collapsed a day later. The Record blamed her death on her agitation over the raid.

     "Get out of my house!" Joan Meyer had shouted at Cody from behind her walker before calling him an expletive, home surveillance video revealed.       "Don't you touch any of that stuff!"
     Yet parsing the events that led to the search — and understanding its larger implications for a free press in the United States — comes down to untangling the complex interrelationships and tortured history of a small group of people coexisting in a single small town.
     At the center of everything were a business owner, a police chief and a newspaper."


---The Marion raid and the Privacy Protection Act (Gabe Rottman, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, 8-21-23)

    How does the “subpoena-first” rule in the Privacy Protection Act actually work?
   "During the raid, the police carted off computers, cell phones, and documents. The computers, and possibly the phones, will contain not only raw reporting material — information and documents gathered, maybe photographs, etc. — but also things like unpublished stories and other actual “news” that reflects the editorial work of the reporters at the Record (all that stuff on all the computers seized). There is no "subpoena-first" rule for the latter, but it receives higher protections than the raw “documentary material” that is obtainable with a subpoena.

   RCFP addresses the question How does the "subpoena-first" rule in the Privacy Protection Act — the federal law limiting law enforcement's ability to conduct newsroom searches — actually work?  In so doing the authors unpack and clarify several terms — "work product" and "documentary materials" and "unlawful acts" — as well as several exceptions: the "suspect" exception and threats to life or limb, and “reason to believe” and the “subpoena-first” exception. And they conclude:

     "In short, it is true that the "subpoena-first" exception reflects the law's intention that police always use the least intrusive means possible when inquiring into the business of the newsroom, and, in practice, gives affected journalists and news organizations the ability to negotiate or challenge a legal demand. But it's important to remember that there is no such rule for a reporter's actual work, in recognition of the heightened sensitivity there. And that's potentially relevant in the Marion case in that the police department may have seized work product related to the newspaper's investigation into the police chief himself."


---After a police raid on a Kansas newspaper, questions mount (Sofia Andrade and Paul Farhi, Washington Post, 8-13-23) Law enforcement seized computers and other records from the Marion County Record on Friday, raising concerns about press freedom. Restaurant owner Kari Newell "claimed that the newspaper, the Marion County Record, had illegally obtained damaging information about a 2008 conviction for drunken driving and was preparing to publish it, leading a local judge to issue a warrant authorizing police to seize the newspaper’s files.
     'The Record, a family-owned weekly serving the small town of about 1,900, didn’t publish the information about Newell’s conviction for drunken driving and has denied that it came by it illegally.
      'Police raids on news organizations are almost unknown in the United States and are illegal under most circumstances under state and federal law.       

      “This shouldn’t happen in America,” said Emily Bradbury, the executive director of the Kansas Press Association, in an interview Sunday. She added: “Freedom of the press is fundamental to our democracy. … We’re not going to let this stand on our watch.”
     'Bradbury said the newspaper’s records could have been obtained via a subpoena, a court-ordered command for specific material that is subject to legal objections, not “an unannounced search.”


---Warrant for Kansas newspaper raid withdrawn by prosecutor for ‘insufficient evidence’ (Luke Nozicka, Jonathan Shorman, and Katie Moore, Kansas City Star, 8-30-23) On Wednesday, August 16, the county prosecutor withdrew the search warrant and directed law enforcement to return the seized material.


Two Big Takeaways from the Marion County Record Raid Investigation (Gabe Rottman, The Nuance, 8-11-24)

   "There's plenty of detail for the curious in the report, but it offers two takeaways of particular note. 

First, it confirms that the whole kerfuffle appears to have been the result of an initial misunderstanding by officers regarding whether a state website that a journalist at the Record accessed as part of her reporting was open to the public. 

   "The biggest takeaway — by far — is the report’s affirmation of the importance of a “subpoena-first” approach when journalists are themselves suspected of a crime. The report’s conclusion is worth quoting in full:

   'Journalists, attorneys, mental health professional [sic] and members of the clergy each have long-recognized privileges in our law rooted in the freedom of religion, freedom of the press and right to legal representation. When a member of one of these professions becomes a suspect in a crime, law enforcement has the ability to investigate. However, in these situations, it is incumbent on law enforcement to take precautions to limit the scope of their investigation. Before a search warrant is sought for a press room, a law office, church or the office of a mental health professional, inquisition subpoenas or other available forms of investigation should be utilized. Search warrants for law offices, press rooms and churches should be sought only in extraordinary circumstances and with extreme caution.'


---Kansas commission seeks magistrate’s perspective on Marion search warrant complaint (Tim Carpenter,Kansas Reflector, 9-6-23) Judge Laura Viar asked to respond to ethics claim leveled by Topekan. First Amendment attorneys said they were convinced the judge ought to have been able to grasp the warrants were constitutionally flawed. The search warrant was secured based on an assertion a Record reporter somehow violated state law by looking up information on a public website of the Kansas Department of Revenue about a restaurant owner's driving license status.


---Kansas newspaper that was raided by Marion police sues officials for attack on free press (Sherman Smiht, Kasnsas Reflector, 4-1-24)

According to a 127-page complaint filed Monday, former Mayor David Mayfield ordered the takedown of the newspaper and a political rival after identifying journalists as “the real villains in America.” The Marion County Record lawsuit says mayor, police chief and sheriff sought revenge for critical news coverage. Joan Meyer, who co-owned the newspaper with her son, repeatedly told officers the stress of ransacking her home was going to kill her, and “that’s going to be murder.” She was so traumatized by the raid she wouldn’t eat, drink or sleep. She died the next day from cardiac arrest.


A reporter is suing a Kansas town and various officials over a police raid on her newspaper (John Hanna, AP, 2-13-24) Reporter Phyllis Zorn filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against the weekly newspaper's hometown and local officials, saying the raid caused her physical and mental health problems. Former Record reporter Deb Gruver sued Cody less than three weeks after the raid.         

   "The lawsuit said before the raid, Zorn had seizures that were controlled by medication so that she had gone as long as five years without having one. Within days of the raid, the seizures returned." The reporters were scheduled for mediation in April 2024.


• Office of the State Fire Marshal Supplemental Report. A detailed account of the event and its aftermath in Joan Meyer's home (before she died).

      Includes "WHEN THE POLICE KNOCK AT YOUR DOOR: NEWSROOM SEARCH WARRANTS" by Jonathan E. Buchan and Corby Anderson, Media Law, MaguireWoods, January 2001

"The federal Privacy Protection Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000aa-2000aa-12, protects journalists from most searches of newsrooms by federal and state law enforcement officials. The Act supplements the protections that the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution provides to all citizens against unreasonable searches and seizures of their person, home, papers, and possessions. The Fourth Amendment requires that searches be "reasonable" and that search warrants be issued only when there is "probable cause" to believe that the evidence sought is in the place to be searched."


Kansas officials downplayed involvement in Marion newspaper raid. Here’s what they knew (Sherman Smith, Missouri Independent, 11-6-23) A rather long account that answers a lot of questions many of us had. Documents show unquestioning support before raid, followed by attempts to sidestep outrage. "Scrutiny of the raid had intensified as the police chief and KBI director issued statements about journalists not being above the law — a distraction from the reality that if anyone had broken the law, it was the police. The newspaper’s 200-point bold type headline that morning read: “SEIZED … but not silenced.”


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