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16:15

NEWS STORY

 * Courts and Crime


POLICE STAGE ‘CHILLING’ RAID ON MARION COUNTY NEWSPAPER, SEIZING COMPUTERS,
RECORDS AND CELLPHONES

BY: SHERMAN SMITH, SAM BAILEY, RACHEL MIPRO AND TIM CARPENTER - AUGUST 11, 2023
4:15 PM



Eric Meyer, publisher of the Marion County Record, answers questions in his
newspaper office Friday after police seized computers, servers, cellphones and
other items. He says he doesn’t know how they will get the newspaper out on
Tuesday, but, “We will publish something.” (Sam Bailey/Kansas Reflector)

MARION — In an unprecedented raid Friday, local law enforcement seized
computers, cellphones and reporting materials from the Marion County Record
office, the newspaper’s reporters, and the publisher’s home.

Eric Meyer, owner and publisher of the newspaper, said police were motivated by
a confidential source who leaked sensitive documents to the newspaper, and the
message was clear: “Mind your own business or we’re going to step on you.”

The city’s entire five-officer police force and two sheriff’s deputies took
“everything we have,” Meyer said, and it wasn’t clear how the newspaper staff
would take the weekly publication to press Tuesday night.

The raid followed news stories about a restaurant owner who kicked reporters out
of a meeting last week with U.S. Rep. Jake LaTurner, and revelations about the
restaurant owner’s lack of a driver’s license and conviction for drunken
driving.

Meyer said he had never heard of police raiding a newspaper office during his 20
years at the Milwaukee Journal or 26 years teaching journalism at the University
of Illinois.

“It’s going to have a chilling effect on us even tackling issues,” Meyer said,
as well as “a chilling effect on people giving us information.”

The search warrant, signed by Marion County District Court Magistrate Judge
Laura Viar, appears to violate federal law that provides protections against
searching and seizing materials from journalists. The law requires law
enforcement to subpoena materials instead. Viar didn’t respond to a request to
comment for this story or explain why she would authorize a potentially illegal
raid.

Emily Bradbury, executive director of the Kansas Press Association, said the
police raid is unprecedented in Kansas.

“An attack on a newspaper office through an illegal search is not just an
infringement on the rights of journalists but an assault on the very foundation
of democracy and the public’s right to know,” Bradbury said. “This cannot be
allowed to stand.”

Meyer reported last week that Marion restaurant owner Kari Newell had kicked
newspaper staff out of a public forum with LaTurner, whose staff was apologetic.
Newell responded to Meyer’s reporting with hostile comments on her personal
Facebook page.

A confidential source contacted the newspaper, Meyer said, and provided evidence
that Newell had been convicted of drunken driving and continued to use her
vehicle without a driver’s license. The criminal record could jeopardize her
efforts to obtain a liquor license for her catering business.

A reporter with the Marion Record used a state website to verify the information
provided by the source. But Meyer suspected the source was relaying information
from Newell’s husband, who had filed for divorce. Meyer decided not to publish a
story about the information, and he alerted police to the situation.

“We thought we were being set up,” Meyer said.

Police notified Newell, who then complained at a city council meeting that the
newspaper had illegally obtained and disseminated sensitive documents, which
isn’t true. Her public comments prompted the newspaper to set the record
straight in a story published Thursday.

Marion County District Court Magistrate Judge Laura Viar signed a search warrant
authorizing the police raid of the newspaper office. (Sam Bailey/Kansas
Reflector)



Sometime before 11 a.m. Friday, officers showed up simultaneously at Meyer’s
home and the newspaper office. They presented a search warrant that alleges
identity theft and unlawful use of a computer.

The search warrant identifies two pages worth of items that law enforcement
officers were allowed to seize, including computer software and hardware,
digital communications, cellular networks, servers and hard drives, items with
passwords, utility records, and all documents and records pertaining to Newell.
The warrant specifically targeted ownership of computers capable of being used
to “participate in the identity theft of Kari Newell.”

Officers injured a reporter’s finger by grabbing her cellphone out of her hand,
Meyer said. Officers at his home took photos of his bank account information.

He said officers told him the computers, cellphones and other devices would be
sent to a lab.

“I don’t know when they’ll get it back to us,” Meyer said. “They won’t tell us.”

The seized computers, server and backup hard drive include advertisements and
legal notices that were supposed to appear in the next edition of the newspaper.

“I don’t know what we’re going to do,” he said. “We will publish something.”

Newell, writing Friday under a changed name on her personal Facebook account,
said she “foolishly” received a DUI in 2008 and “knowingly operated a vehicle
without a license out of necessity.”

“Journalists have become the dirty politicians of today, twisting narrative for
bias agendas, full of muddied half-truths,” Newell wrote. “We rarely get facts
that aren’t baited with misleading insinuations.”

She said the “entire debacle was brought forth in an attempt to smear my name,
jeopardize my licensing through ABC (state Alcoholic Beverage Control Division),
harm my business, seek retaliation, and for personal leverage in an ongoing
domestic court battle.”

At the law enforcement center in Marion, a staff member said only Police Chief
Gideon Cody could answer questions for this story, and that Cody had gone home
for the day and could not be reached by phone. The office of Attorney General
Kris Kobach wasn’t available to comment on the legal controversy in Marion,
which is north of Wichita in central Kansas.

Melissa Underwood, communications director of the Kansas Bureau of
Investigation, replied by email to a question about whether the KBI was involved
in the case.

“At the request of the Marion Police Department, on Tuesday, Aug. 8, we began an
investigation into allegations of criminal wrongdoing in Marion, Kansas. The
investigation is ongoing,” Underwood said.

Meyer, whose father worked at the newspaper from 1948 until he retired, bought
the Marion County Record in 1998, preventing a sale to a corporate newspaper
chain.

As a journalism professor in Illinois, Meyer said, he had graduate students from
Egypt who talked about how people would come into the newspaper office and seize
everything so they couldn’t publish. Those students presented a scholarly paper
at a conference in Toronto about what it has done to journalism there.

“That’s basically what they’re trying to do here,” Meyer said. “The intervention
is just like that repressive government of Egypt. I didn’t think it could happen
in America.”


Republish

Our stories may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. We ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide
proper attribution and link to our web site. Please see our republishing
guidelines for use of photos and graphics.




SHERMAN SMITH

Sherman Smith is the editor in chief of Kansas Reflector. He writes about things
that powerful people don't want you to know. A two-time Kansas Press Association
journalist of the year, his award-winning reporting includes stories about
education, technology, foster care, voting, COVID-19, sex abuse, and access to
reproductive health care. Before founding Kansas Reflector in 2020, he spent 16
years at the Topeka Capital-Journal. He graduated from Emporia State University
in 2004, back when the school still valued English and journalism. He was raised
in the country at the end of a dead end road in Lyon County.

MORE FROM AUTHOR

SAM BAILEY

Sam Bailey graduated from Emporia State University in 2023, where she majored in
communication and was the managing editor for the ESU Bulletin, the campus
newspaper. She was named Kansas Collegiate Media Journalist of the Year for
four-year Kansas schools in 2023. She also won Journalist of the Year in 2021
for two-year schools when she was editor for the Hutchinson Community College
student newspaper. She has won awards for her investigative reporting and has
covered issues that include student debt, a university presidential search and
the firing of 33 professors in 2022.

MORE FROM AUTHOR

RACHEL MIPRO

A graduate of Louisiana State University, Rachel Mipro has covered state
government in Baton Rouge and New Orleans. She and her fellow team of
journalists were 2022 Goldsmith Prize Semi-Finalists for their work featuring
the rise of the KKK in northern Louisiana, following racially-motivated
shootings in 1960. With her move to the Midwest, Rachel is now turning her focus
toward issues within Kansas public policies.

MORE FROM AUTHOR

TIM CARPENTER

Tim Carpenter has reported on Kansas for 35 years. He covered the Capitol for 16
years at the Topeka Capital-Journal and previously worked for the Lawrence
Journal-World and United Press International.

MORE FROM AUTHOR

RELATED NEWS

Kansas officials downplayed involvement in Marion raid.… by Sherman Smith
November 6, 2023
New U.S. House Natural Resources chair opposes limits on… by Jacob Fischler
January 31, 2023
Full transcript of Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly's 2023 State of… by Gov. Laura Kelly
January 24, 2023




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Our stories may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. We ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide
proper attribution and link to our web site.

DEIJ Policy | Ethics Policy | Privacy Policy
© Kansas Reflector, 2023
1
X



POLICE STAGE ‘CHILLING’ RAID ON MARION COUNTY NEWSPAPER, SEIZING COMPUTERS,
RECORDS AND CELLPHONES

by Sherman Smith, Kansas Reflector
August 11, 2023

<h1>Police stage ‘chilling’ raid on Marion County newspaper, seizing computers,
records and cellphones</h1> <p>by Sherman Smith, <a
href="https://kansasreflector.com">Kansas Reflector</a> <br />August 11,
2023</p> <p>MARION — In an unprecedented raid Friday, local law enforcement
seized computers, cellphones and reporting materials from the <a
href="http://marionrecord.com/">Marion County Record</a> office, the newspaper’s
reporters, and the publisher’s home.</p> <p>Eric Meyer, owner and publisher of
the newspaper, said police were motivated by a confidential source who leaked
sensitive documents to the newspaper, and the message was clear: “Mind your own
business or we’re going to step on you.”</p> <p>The city’s entire five-officer
police force and two sheriff’s deputies took “everything we have,” Meyer said,
and it wasn’t clear how the newspaper staff would take the weekly publication to
press Tuesday night.</p> <p>The raid followed news stories about a restaurant
owner who kicked reporters out of a meeting last week with U.S. Rep. Jake
LaTurner, and revelations about the restaurant owner’s lack of a driver’s
license and conviction for drunken driving.</p> <p>Meyer said he had never heard
of police raiding a newspaper office during his 20 years at the Milwaukee
Journal or 26 years teaching journalism at the University of Illinois.</p>
<p>“It’s going to have a chilling effect on us even tackling issues,” Meyer
said, as well as “a chilling effect on people giving us information.”</p> <p>The
search warrant, signed by Marion County District Court Magistrate Judge Laura
Viar, appears to violate <a
href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/2000aa">federal law</a> that
provides protections against searching and seizing materials from journalists.
The law requires law enforcement to <a
href="https://www.mcguirewoods.com/news-resources/publications/media.0101.pdf">subpoena
materials instead</a>. Viar didn’t respond to a request to comment for this
story or explain why she would authorize a potentially illegal raid.</p>
<p>Emily Bradbury, executive director of the Kansas Press Association, said the
police raid is unprecedented in Kansas.</p> <p>“An attack on a newspaper office
through an illegal search is not just an infringement on the rights of
journalists but an assault on the very foundation of democracy and the public’s
right to know,” Bradbury said. “This cannot be allowed to stand.”</p> <p>Meyer
reported last week that Marion restaurant owner Kari Newell had kicked newspaper
staff out of a public forum with LaTurner, whose staff was apologetic. Newell
responded to Meyer’s reporting with hostile comments on her personal Facebook
page.</p> <p>A confidential source contacted the newspaper, Meyer said, and
provided evidence that Newell had been convicted of drunken driving and
continued to use her vehicle without a driver’s license. The criminal record
could jeopardize her efforts to obtain a liquor license for her catering
business.</p> <p>A reporter with the Marion Record used a state website to
verify the information provided by the source. But Meyer suspected the source
was relaying information from Newell’s husband, who had filed for divorce. Meyer
decided not to publish a story about the information, and he alerted police to
the situation.</p> <p>“We thought we were being set up,” Meyer said.</p>
<p>Police notified Newell, who then complained at a city council meeting that
the newspaper had illegally obtained and disseminated sensitive documents, which
isn’t true. Her public comments prompted the newspaper to set the record
straight in a story published Thursday.</p> <figure><a
href="https://kansasreflector.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/SearchWarrant2.jpg"></a><i></i>
Marion County District Court Magistrate Judge Laura Viar signed a search warrant
authorizing the police raid of the newspaper office. (Sam Bailey/Kansas
Reflector)</p></figure> <p>Sometime before 11 a.m. Friday, officers showed up
simultaneously at Meyer’s home and the newspaper office. They presented a search
warrant that alleges identity theft and unlawful use of a computer.</p> <p>The
search warrant identifies two pages worth of items that law enforcement officers
were allowed to seize, including computer software and hardware, digital
communications, cellular networks, servers and hard drives, items with
passwords, utility records, and all documents and records pertaining to Newell.
The warrant specifically targeted ownership of computers capable of being used
to “participate in the identity theft of Kari Newell.”</p> <p>Officers injured a
reporter’s finger by grabbing her cellphone out of her hand, Meyer said.
Officers at his home took photos of his bank account information.</p> <p>He said
officers told him the computers, cellphones and other devices would be sent to a
lab.</p> <p>“I don’t know when they’ll get it back to us,” Meyer said. “They
won’t tell us.”</p> <p>The seized computers, server and backup hard drive
include advertisements and legal notices that were supposed to appear in the
next edition of the newspaper.</p> <p>“I don’t know what we’re going to do,” he
said. “We will publish something.”</p> <p>Newell, writing Friday under a changed
name on her personal Facebook account, said she “foolishly” received a DUI in
2008 and “knowingly operated a vehicle without a license out of necessity.”</p>
<p>“Journalists have become the dirty politicians of today, twisting narrative
for bias agendas, full of muddied half-truths,” Newell wrote. “We rarely get
facts that aren’t baited with misleading insinuations.”</p> <p>She said the
“entire debacle was brought forth in an attempt to smear my name, jeopardize my
licensing through ABC (state Alcoholic Beverage Control Division), harm my
business, seek retaliation, and for personal leverage in an ongoing domestic
court battle.”</p> <p>At the law enforcement center in Marion, a staff member
said only Police Chief Gideon Cody could answer questions for this story, and
that Cody had gone home for the day and could not be reached by phone. The
office of Attorney General Kris Kobach wasn’t available to comment on the legal
controversy in Marion, which is north of Wichita in central Kansas.</p>
<p>Melissa Underwood, communications director of the Kansas Bureau of
Investigation, replied by email to a question about whether the KBI was involved
in the case.</p> <p>“At the request of the Marion Police Department, on Tuesday,
Aug. 8, we began an investigation into allegations of criminal wrongdoing in
Marion, Kansas. The investigation is ongoing,” Underwood said.</p> <p>Meyer,
whose father worked at the newspaper from 1948 until he retired, bought the
Marion County Record in 1998, preventing a sale to a corporate newspaper
chain.</p> <p>As a journalism professor in Illinois, Meyer said, he had graduate
students from Egypt who talked about how people would come into the newspaper
office and seize everything so they couldn’t publish. Those students presented a
scholarly paper at a conference in Toronto about what it has done to journalism
there.</p> <p>“That’s basically what they’re trying to do here,” Meyer said.
“The intervention is just like that repressive government of Egypt. I didn’t
think it could happen in America.”</p> <style> figure, .tipContainer,
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