# Police stage 'chilling' raid on small Kansas newspaper, seizing computers (due to divorce conflict?) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Tags:** breaking-news\ **Created:** [August 12, 2023, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-stage-chilling-raid-on-small-kansas-newspaper-seizing-computers-due-to-divorce-conflict/988438 "2023-08-12T02:57:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2023, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-stage-chilling-raid-on-small-kansas-newspaper-seizing-computers-due-to-divorce-conflict/988438/1 "2023-08-12T02:57:38Z")
> In an unprecedented raid Friday, local law enforcement seized computers, cellphones and reporting materials from the [Marion County Record](http://marionrecord.com/) 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. > **[Police stage 'chilling' raid on Marion County newspaper, seizing computers,...](https://kansasreflector.com/2023/08/11/police-stage-chilling-raid-on-marion-county-newspaper-seizing-computers-records-and-cellphones/)** > > 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. Here is the newspaper in question: > **[Marion County RECORD](http://marionrecord.com/)** > > Marion County RECORD newspaper: news and sports from Antelope, Aulne, Burdick, Canada, Durham, Eastshore, Florence, Lincolnville, Lost Springs, Marion, Marion County Lake, Marion Reservoir, Pilsen, Ramona, Tampa, Youngtown, Centre USD 397,... Marion County, Kansas is a small rural county with a population under 12,000. I just thought this was weird. I guess it just shows the power of influential business people. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2023, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-stage-chilling-raid-on-small-kansas-newspaper-seizing-computers-due-to-divorce-conflict/988438/2 "2023-08-12T03:06:41Z")
Marion looks to be about an hour’s drive NNE of Wichita. My BFF lives in Emporia, and they have other relatives in this region, so I will ask him if he knows anything about it. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2023, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-stage-chilling-raid-on-small-kansas-newspaper-seizing-computers-due-to-divorce-conflict/988438/3 "2023-08-12T11:59:10Z")
Big boss in small town using police as enforcers is a very old story. There are many, many fictional books, shows, and movies on this theme. Which is not to say it’s good, just to say it’s much more common than it ought to be. The “good” news here is now the entire world knows about this and the newspaper ought to be able to get the Feds or at least state law enforcement in on the job to stomp out this corruption. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2023, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-stage-chilling-raid-on-small-kansas-newspaper-seizing-computers-due-to-divorce-conflict/988438/4 "2023-08-12T17:21:46Z")
We’ll see if Kansas AG Kris Kobach has anything to say about this. He’s always harping on following the constitution. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2023, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-stage-chilling-raid-on-small-kansas-newspaper-seizing-computers-due-to-divorce-conflict/988438/5 "2023-08-12T19:26:41Z")
Update: My BFF and I chatted on Facebook last night, and I asked him about this. It was the first he’d heard of it, but now it gets a bit more interesting. His nephew is a police officer who lives in Marion, and they’ve been trying to recruit him. (He works in a nearby town; they live there because it’s halfway between his job, and his wife’s job.) ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2023, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-stage-chilling-raid-on-small-kansas-newspaper-seizing-computers-due-to-divorce-conflict/988438/6 "2023-08-12T19:58:39Z")
This reminds of a story in a recent thread (warning, [Pit content](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-party-is-the-party-of-evil/937187/1990)) - although the incident in question can be reviewed here: [Oklahoma officials recorded making racist and threatening remarks | Oklahoma | The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/apr/18/oklahoma-mccurtain-county-sheriff-officials-recording-racist-threatening-remarks#:~:text=A%20sheriff%20and%20several%20officials,journalists%20and%20lynch%20Black%20citizens). Granted, it utterly lacks the additional racial profiling, insults, and threats, but the whole “local government does what it wants and how DARE you report on it” feels perfectly in sync. It also continues an ongoing trend of politicians, local, state and federal, treating our excess of police and security forces as a private army. And the extremely limited pushback they get when they do so. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2023, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-stage-chilling-raid-on-small-kansas-newspaper-seizing-computers-due-to-divorce-conflict/988438/7 "2023-08-13T00:29:18Z")
Saturday afternoon, the 98-year-old owner of the newspaper, whose house was raided and her computer equipment seized, collapsed and died. > **[Marion County RECORD](http://marionrecord.com/)** > > Marion County RECORD newspaper: news and sports from Antelope, Aulne, Burdick, Canada, Durham, Eastshore, Florence, Lincolnville, Lost Springs, Marion, Marion County Lake, Marion Reservoir, Pilsen, Ramona, Tampa, Youngtown, Centre USD 397,... The story says that she wasn’t able to eat or sleep after the raid. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2023, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-stage-chilling-raid-on-small-kansas-newspaper-seizing-computers-due-to-divorce-conflict/988438/8 "2023-08-13T00:58:41Z")
Sounds like the chief of police should be arrested for manslaughter. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2023, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-stage-chilling-raid-on-small-kansas-newspaper-seizing-computers-due-to-divorce-conflict/988438/9 "2023-08-13T01:53:42Z")
Now the restaurant owner has issued a statement. If what she says is true, then she has a point. The plot thickens. > ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2023, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-stage-chilling-raid-on-small-kansas-newspaper-seizing-computers-due-to-divorce-conflict/988438/10 "2023-08-13T02:17:07Z")
There are two sides to the story, sure. But the paper says that they were not looking to publish the private information. The fact that the publisher is a retired University of Illinois J-school professor suggests (but hardly proves) that maybe they know something about journalistic ethics. Also, looking at a few of other Marion County Record stories, it appears to me unusually strong by small town newspaper standards. However, others here may not like their editorial stance, which is basically never-Trump Republican (in a very heavily GOP county). ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2023, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-stage-chilling-raid-on-small-kansas-newspaper-seizing-computers-due-to-divorce-conflict/988438/11 "2023-08-13T02:27:30Z")
> **[Raid on Marion County, Kansas, newspaper shows why would-be tyrants fear...](https://news.yahoo.com/raid-marion-county-kansas-newspaper-221620771.html)** > > The publisher of this small-town news outlet is doing the work democracy demands. And he should sue police who tried to shut him down. | Opinion > [@](#): > > In some ways, local officials’ vendetta against Marion County Record owner and publisher Eric Meyer highlights the importance of local news coverage and the grit and dedication it takes keep it going against heavy economic odds. > > After decades working at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, followed by a couple more on the journalism faculty at the University of Illinois, the silver-haired newsman could be enjoying retirement. Instead, he returned to the same newspaper where his dad once worked. > > Meyer and his newsroom represent one of the green shoots sprouting in a nation of [expanding news deserts](https://localnewsinitiative.northwestern.edu/research/state-of-local-news/report/), where they are the watchdogs of communities too small or too remote to attract the attention of big metropolitan dailies or TV stations. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2023, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-stage-chilling-raid-on-small-kansas-newspaper-seizing-computers-due-to-divorce-conflict/988438/12 "2023-08-13T02:49:41Z")
> [@PhillyGuy](#): > > There are two sides to the story, sure. But the paper says that they were not looking to publish the private information. What Kari Newell says about somebody using her personal information to access her private stuff is troubling. I am not at all convinced that it’s true, and I hope the newspaper is on the upside of this case. But there may be more than what we know, at this point. Regardless of how this shakes out, raiding the home of a 98-year-old frail woman is a bunch of crap, and the judge and cops know that. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2023, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-stage-chilling-raid-on-small-kansas-newspaper-seizing-computers-due-to-divorce-conflict/988438/13 "2023-08-13T10:52:50Z")
So it appears there’s still more to this story, as linked by Heather Cox Richardson in her column last night. The Marion Record was investigating Gideon Cody, the chief of police in Marion, after receiving several tips about alleged sexual misconduct charges at his former job. > **[A conversation with the newspaper owner raided by cops](https://thehandbasket.substack.com/p/a-conversation-with-the-newspaper?utm_source=substack&utm_campaign=post_embed&utm_medium=email)** > > Eric Meyer says his paper had been investigating the police chief prior to the raids on his office and home. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2023, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-stage-chilling-raid-on-small-kansas-newspaper-seizing-computers-due-to-divorce-conflict/988438/14 "2023-08-14T11:40:48Z")
35 news media and press freedom organizations write to condemn the raid: > On August 11, 2023, law enforcement officers with the Marion > Police Department executed a search warrant at the Marion County Record’s > newsroom and at its publisher’s home, and seized the Record’s electronic > newsgathering equipment, work product, and documentary material. > The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (the “Reporters > Committee”) and the undersigned 34 news media and press freedom > organizations write to condemn that raid. 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. > 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… > **[2023-08-13\_Reporters-Committee-Marion-letter.pdf](https://www.rcfp.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/2023-08-13_Reporters-Committee-Marion-letter.pdf)** > > 213.52 KB ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2023, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-stage-chilling-raid-on-small-kansas-newspaper-seizing-computers-due-to-divorce-conflict/988438/15 "2023-08-14T13:03:02Z")
I don’t understand the need for such a large number of police. It seems like a couple detectives with a warrant could collect the evidence. More information about the case will probably come out in the next few days. Any sensitive data is probably backed up in the cloud and safe from a physical search by local cops. It will be more difficult to process a warrant against a cloud server company’s team of lawyers. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2023, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-stage-chilling-raid-on-small-kansas-newspaper-seizing-computers-due-to-divorce-conflict/988438/16 "2023-08-14T16:30:54Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > It seems like a couple detectives with a warrant could collect the evidence. A couple detectives would fail to project the gratuitous force necessary for the intended intimidation. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2023, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-stage-chilling-raid-on-small-kansas-newspaper-seizing-computers-due-to-divorce-conflict/988438/17 "2023-08-14T18:48:22Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > It seems like a couple detectives with a warrant could collect the evidence. I saw a brief video of the raid last night during a report from a Wichita TV station. It looks to me that a detective was taking pictures of a cop picking up and carrying away a fairly large computer, which I assumed was the file server. Now, who was taking this video is still in question. That report is in this link. What I was describing is at about the 45 second mark. > **[Marion County Record editor speaks out after police raid](https://www.kake.com/story/49413364/marion-county-record-editor-speaks-out-after-police-raid)** ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2023, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-stage-chilling-raid-on-small-kansas-newspaper-seizing-computers-due-to-divorce-conflict/988438/18 "2023-08-14T19:36:49Z")
I want to know what evidence this idiot judge was provided before he approved the warrant. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2023, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-stage-chilling-raid-on-small-kansas-newspaper-seizing-computers-due-to-divorce-conflict/988438/19 "2023-08-14T19:44:23Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I want to know what evidence this idiot judge was provided before he approved the warrant It’s a woman, Laura Viar. > **[Honorable Laura E. Viar | 8th Judicial District of Kansas](https://8thjd.com/248/Honorable-Laura-E-Viar)** > > See biographical information on Judge Laura E. Viar. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_was_in_Saudi)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2023, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-stage-chilling-raid-on-small-kansas-newspaper-seizing-computers-due-to-divorce-conflict/988438/20 "2023-08-16T18:54:13Z")
[Reports](https://www.thedailybeast.com/marion-county-record-search-warrant-withdrawn-after-kansas-newspaper-raid-lawyer-says?ref=home?ref=home) indicate the warrant has been withdrawn. There must be a lot going on here. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-stage-chilling-raid-on-small-kansas-newspaper-seizing-computers-due-to-divorce-conflict/988438.md?page=2)