TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A rural Kansas county has agreed to pay a little more than $3 million and apologize over a l
aw 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 Mar
ion 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 demo
cracy,” 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.
During the raid, authorities seized cellphones and computers from the newsroom and rifled through reporters’ desk
s. 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 license. The raid also came af
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ter 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 (240 kilometers) southwes
t 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 res
olving legal claims against the county. Claims against the city and city officials have not been settled, and Meyer sai
d 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 immediately 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 fun
d to ensure th
at 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 M
arion’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.
Doug Anstaett, a retired Kansas Press Association executive director, said Tuesday that the raid violated the state’s shield law for journalists. It allows l
aw enforcement agencies to seek subpoenas to obtain confidential information from news organizations but requires them to show a compelling interest and
that they can’t obtain it in another way. Anstaett was the association’s executive director when the law was enacted in 2010.