{"id":286581,"date":"2025-11-12T03:44:19","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T03:44:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/286581\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T03:44:19","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T03:44:19","slug":"kansas-county-agrees-to-pay-3-million-apologize-over-raid-on-newspaper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/286581\/","title":{"rendered":"Kansas county agrees to pay $3 million, apologize over raid on newspaper"},"content":{"rendered":"

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) \u2014 A rural Kansas county has agreed to pay a little more than $3 million and apologize over a law enforcement raid on a small-town weekly newspaper<\/a> in August 2023 that sparked an outcry over press freedom.<\/p>\n

Marion County sheriff\u2019s officers were involved in the raid on the Marion County Record and helped draft search warrants used by Marion city police to enter the newspaper\u2019s offices, the publisher\u2019s home and the home of a local city council member. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A stack of the Marion County Record sits in the back of the newspaper\u2019s building, awaiting unbundling, sorting and distribution, Aug. 16, 2023, in Marion, Kan. A former reporter for a weekly Kansas newspaper has agreed to accept $235,000 to settle part of her federal lawsuit over a police raid on the paper that made a small town the focus of a national debate over press freedoms. (AP Photo\/John Hanna, File)<\/p>\n

A stack of the Marion County Record sits in the back of the newspaper\u2019s building, awaiting unbundling, sorting and distribution, Aug. 16, 2023, in Marion, Kan. A former reporter for a weekly Kansas newspaper has agreed to accept $235,000 to settle part of her federal lawsuit over a police raid on the paper that made a small town the focus of a national debate over press freedoms. (AP Photo\/John Hanna, File)<\/p>\n

Read More<\/p>\n

\u201cThey intentionally wanted to harass us for reporting the news, and you\u2019re not supposed to do that in a democracy,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

The raid prompted five federal lawsuits against the county, the city of Marion and local officials. Meyer\u2019s 98-year-old mother Joan, the paper\u2019s co-owner, died of a heart attack the next day, something he blames on the stress of the raid. <\/p>\n

During the raid, authorities seized cellphones and computers from the newsroom and rifled through reporters\u2019 desks. 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 after the newspaper had dug into the background of the police chief at the time who led the raid.<\/p>\n

The raid triggered a national debate about press freedom<\/a> focused on Marion, a town of about 1,900 people set among rolling prairie hills some 150 miles (240 kilometers) southwest of Kansas City, Missouri. Police body camera footage<\/a> from Meyer\u2019s home showed his mother, who lived with him, visibly upset and telling officers, \u201cGet out of my house!\u201d <\/p>\n

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An attorney for the newspaper, Bernie Rhodes, released a copy Tuesday of the five-page agreement resolving legal claims against the county. Claims against the city and city officials have not been settled, and Meyer said he believes they will face a larger judgment once those claims are eventually resolved. <\/p>\n

Marion County\u2019s administrator and attorneys for the city and county did not immediately return messages seeking comment. <\/p>\n

Raid\u2019s legality was questioned<\/p>\n

Under the judgment, the estate of Meyer\u2019s mother will receive $1 million. Meyer, two former Record reporters and the paper\u2019s business manager will split $1.1 million, and Ruth Herbel, the former city council member, will receive $650,000. Meyer said he\u2019s considering a fund to ensure that the paper remains financially viable or a program to encourage young journalists to work in communities like his.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal isn\u2019t to get the money. The money is symbolic,\u201d Meyer said. \u201cThe press has basically been under assault.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three days after the raid, the local prosecutor said there wasn\u2019t enough evidence to justify it. Experts said<\/a> Marion\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Doug Anstaett, a retired Kansas Press Association executive director, said Tuesday that the raid violated the state\u2019s shield law for journalists. It allows law enforcement agencies to seek subpoenas to obtain confidential information from news organizations but requires them to show a compelling interest and that they can\u2019t obtain it in another way. Anstaett was the association\u2019s executive director when the law was enacted in 2010. <\/p>\n

The Record is known for its aggressive coverage of local issues, and Anstaett suggested police where trying to \u201cget at\u201d Meyer because of his adversarial relationships with local officials, adding, \u201cit totally backfired.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t follow any of those requirements and therefore it was really a slam dunk in terms of whether they broke the law or not,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Genelle Belmas, a University of Kansas professor who teaches media law, described the raid as \u201can egregious violation of the First Amendment rights\u201d of Meyer and the weekly. <\/p>\n

\u201cI share his hope that an award of this size serves as a deterrent against future ill-conceived warrants with political motivations,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd no amount of money brings Joan Meyer back. We need to stay vigilant against government incursions on the press.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sheriff issues apology<\/p>\n

The search warrants were premised on the idea that the newspaper and a reporter had illegally impersonated the local restaurant owner to obtain her driving record online and that the former city council member Herbel illegally circulated it by sending a cellphone screenshot to the city manager. <\/p>\n

Two special prosecutors<\/a> who reviewed the raid and its aftermath said nearly a year later that the Record, its staff and Herbel had committed no crimes before the raid. The prosecutors also said the warrants signed by a judge contained inaccurate information from an \u201cinadequate investigation\u201d and that the searches were not legally justified. Cody resigned as police chief<\/a> in October 2023.<\/p>\n

Cody is scheduled to go to trial in February in Marion County on a felony charge<\/a> of interfering with a judicial process, accused by the two special prosecutors of persuading a potential witness to withhold information from authorities investigating his conduct. He had pleaded not guilty and did not respond to a text message Tuesday seeking comment about the county\u2019s agreement. <\/p>\n

The charge against Cody stems from text messages between him and the business owner after the raid. The business owner has said Cody asked her to delete text messages<\/a> between them, fearing people could get a wrong idea about their relationship, which she said was professional and platonic. <\/p>\n

The Marion County Commission approved the agreement Monday after discussing it in private for 15 minutes.<\/p>\n

The agreement required Sheriff Jeff Soyez to issue an apology.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Sheriff\u2019s Office wishes to express its sincere regrets to Eric and Joan Meyer and Ruth and Ronald Herbel for its participation in the drafting and execution of the Marion County Police Department\u2019s search warrants on their homes and the Marion County Record,\u201d the sheriff\u2019s statement said.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Hollingsworth reported from Mission, Kansas. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) \u2014 A rural Kansas county has agreed to pay a little more than $3 million…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":286582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,150959,150960,85470,150957,39979,793,150961,150956,4412,15961,4381,3130,2221,6747,9602,3,150955,150958,22148,795,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-286581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-bernie-rhodes","tag-doug-anstaett","tag-embezzlement","tag-eric-meyer","tag-freedom-of-the-press","tag-general-news","tag-jeff-soyez","tag-joan-meyer","tag-kansas","tag-ks-state-wire","tag-law-enforcement","tag-lawsuits","tag-legal-proceedings","tag-missouri","tag-mo-state-wire","tag-news","tag-ronald-herbel","tag-ruth-herbel","tag-theft","tag-u-s-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}