Photo: Prathaan / iStock / Getty Images
A police department in Kansas is under fire after raiding the newsroom of the Marion County Record. On Friday, officers with the Marion Police Department executed search warrants at the newspaper's offices and at the home of Eric Meyer, the newspaper's publisher and co-owner.
Officers seized computers, phones, a file server, and the personal phones of staff members during the raid of the Record's office. They also seized similar items from Meyer's home and took his internet router.
Meyer said his 98-year-old mother, Record co-owner Joan Meyer, died on Saturday. She lived with her son, who blamed her death on the stress from the raid.
When the newspaper asked for a copy of the probable cause affidavit, the district court said no affidavit was on file. The two-age search warrant noted that officers were investigating "identity theft" and "unlawful acts concerning computers."
Meyer believes that raid was the result of a story about a local businesswoman Kari Newell. After Newell had two reporters removed from a fundraiser at her restaurant, the paper reportedly received a tip that Newell was previously convicted of drunk driving.
Meyer said that the reporters tried to verify the information through public records. Ultimately, the Record didn't run the story on Newall's 2008 conviction. Instead, the paper wrote a story about the council meeting, in which Newall admitted to the conviction.
However, Newall told CNN that the reporters "unlawfully used her credentials to get information that was available only to law enforcement, private investigators, and insurance agencies."
As word of the raid spread, many prominent news organizations blasted the police for the raid. The four-page letter was by 34 news and press freedom organizations, including The Associated Press, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and CNN.
"Newsroom searches and seizures are among the most intrusive actions law enforcement can take with respect to the free press, and the most potentially suppressive of free speech by the press and the public," the letter said. "Based on public reporting, the search warrant that has been published online, and your public statements to the press, there appears to be no justification for the breadth and intrusiveness of the search —particularly when other investigative steps may have been available — and we are concerned that it may have violated federal law strictly limiting federal, state, and local law enforcement's ability to conduct newsroom searches."
Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody defended his department's actions.
"I believe when the rest of the story is available to the public, the judicial system that is being questioned will be vindicated," Cody said in a statement. "I appreciate all the assistance from all the state and local investigators along with the entire judicial process thus far."