Kansas Police stage ‘chilling’ raid on Marion County Record newspaper, seizing computers, records and cellphones over public info not published

[essentialsaltes]

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 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.

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.

[The newspaper suspected a friend of her husband (who is divorcing her) may have been the source. Although the DUI conviction is legitimate, the paper didn't run that aspect of the story.]

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.”

 

[GreatLakes4Ever]

Congrats Marion County, now the entire country knows about Newell’s DUI.

 

[Pommer]

Congrats Marion County, now the entire country knows about Newell’s DUI.

The Streisand-effect strikes again!

 

[DaisyDay]

Now this is weaponizing government to violate someone's First Amendment rights.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Raid on Kansas newspaper is an intolerable overreach by police | Editorial [Wichita Eagle]

Marion city police and the Marion County sheriff’s office did something on Friday that no government agency in America has any right to do. They shut down a newspaper. Those agencies raided the offices of the Marion County Record and the home of its owners, Eric Meyer and his mother, Joan. Police seized company-owned and personal computers and cell phones, and photographed personal documents on tables in the Meyer home. The police action, involving at least four city officers and two sheriff’s deputies, also seized similar equipment and materials from the city’s vice mayor, Ruth Herbel.

But we probably couldn’t [express our outrage] any better than the 98-year-old Joan Meyer, a newspaperwoman since 1953: “These are Hitler tactics and something has to be done.”

It turned out to be one of the last things she ever said. Mrs. Meyer complained of feeling upset and stressed by the invasion of her home when she spoke to us on Friday. Late Saturday, we received the sad news that she had collapsed at home and passed away.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Dozens of news organizations condemn police raid on Kansas newspaper and call for seized materials to be returned​

The four-page letter, sent by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press to Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody, was signed by 34 news and press freedom organizations, including CNN, The Associated Press, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and others.

 

[Belk]

I'm against this on principle but I will wait to see what evidence the government has of maleficence. As a government worker charged with protecting CJIS data this is a pretty serious accusation. Still, the bar had better be pretty high that they have a good case.

 

[Truth7t7]

Now this is weaponizing government to violate someone's First Amendment rights.

Sorta like the Biden/Garland FBI raid on journalist (James Okeffe) at project veritas, kick the door down, search and seize unlawfully

 

[Truth7t7]

Dozens of news organizations condemn police raid on Kansas newspaper and call for seized materials to be returned​

The four-page letter, sent by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press to Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody, was signed by 34 news and press freedom organizations, including CNN, The Associated Press, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and others.

Wonder why all those liberal news outlets didn't support journalist (James Okeffe) at project Veritas, when the Biden/Garland FBI raided his home in illegal search and seizure?

 

[NxNW]

I've read a half dozen different versions of the story, and it sounds like the newspaper did everything legally. While the search warrant wasn't even properly documented.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Wonder why all those liberal news outlets didn't support journalist (James Okeffe) at project Veritas, when the Biden/Garland FBI raided his home in illegal search and seizure?

What, like this?

CPJ concerned over FBI raid on home of Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe​

ACLU stands up for Project Veritas after FBI raid​

The ACLU noted the project’s spotty record in its statement defending it.

“Project Veritas has engaged in disgraceful deceptions, and reasonable observers might not consider their activities to be journalism at all,” begins the statement attributed to Brian Hauss, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project.



As it turned out, however, as a matter of law, they were not acting as journalists.

Project Veritas loses journalistic and attorney-client privilege claims in Ashley Biden case​

 

[durangodawood]

Wonder why all those liberal news outlets didn't support journalist (James Okeffe) at project Veritas, when the Biden/Garland FBI raided his home in illegal search and seizure?

Hes a fictionalist. But if the raid on him was illegal, then it was illegal.

 

[DaisyDay]

Sorta like the Biden/Garland FBI raid on journalist (James Okeffe) at project veritas, kick the door down, search and seize unlawfully

Nope. Not a bit.

 

[essentialsaltes]

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation has begun a criminal probe of the police raid of a newspaper office last week that has drawn outrage from journalists nationwide who see it as a violation of the First Amendment.

It’s not clear whether the state investigation is focused on the local officers who conducted the search at the Marion County Record or on the reporters and editors for the small weekly paper. The agency said it was asked by Marion police and the local county attorney to join an investigation into allegations of “illegal access and dissemination of confidential criminal justice information,” according to the Kansas City Star.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Kansas newspaper to regain items seized in controversial police raid​

After nearly a week of intense criticism and national headlines, the local prosecutor behind a controversial police raid on a Kansas newspaper office has agreed to withdraw the search warrant and return items taken from the paper.

“I have come to the conclusion that insufficient evidence exists to establish a legally sufficient nexus between this alleged crime and the places searched and the items seized,” Ensey said. “As a result, I have submitted a proposed order asking the court to release the evidence seized. I have asked local law enforcement to return the material seized to the owners of the property.”

 

[essentialsaltes]

Judge who approved raid on Kansas newspaper has history of DUI arrests​

not necessarily all that relevant, but boy can a small town paper have a lot of material.

 

[durangodawood]

Seems like not the most low key way to orchestrate a cover up.

 

[essentialsaltes]

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation has begun a criminal probe of the police raid of a newspaper office last week that has drawn outrage from journalists nationwide who see it as a violation of the First Amendment.

It’s not clear whether the state investigation is focused on the local officers who conducted the search at the Marion County Record or on the reporters and editors for the small weekly paper.

State Attorney General Kris Kobach has said he doesn't see the KBI's role as investigating the police's conduct, and that prompted some to question whether the federal government would get involved.

A raid on a Kansas newspaper likely broke the law, experts say. But which one?​

 

[JustOneWay]

As it turned out, however, as a matter of law, they were not acting as journalists.

2010​

James O'Keefe Avoids Jail Time​

"Magistrate Judge Daniel Knowles III repeatedly told the young men that they need to learn "where to draw a line" as aspiring investigative journalists, the Times-Picayune reports."​

James O'Keefe Avoids Jail Time

James O'Keefe Pleads Guilty to Unlawfully Entering Federal Property, Gets Three Years Probation

www.cbsnews.com

When did they ever act like journalists? (rhetorical)

 

[essentialsaltes]

Police Chief Gideon Cody was indeed under investigation for sexual misconduct at his previous job.​

(just wanted to make sure this wasn't lost. Also that restaurant lady had DUIs and lost her license.)

Sexual misconduct allegations confirmed
​

The Star confirmed my reporting from Saturday that Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody left his previous job amidst allegations of sexual misconduct. In a story published Thursday, the Star spoke with former colleagues of Cody’s at the Kansas City Police Department, who said that indeed he departed the department under a cloud.

They say Gideon was, “under internal review for allegedly making insulting and sexist comments to a female officer,” who filed a hostile work environment complaint against him earlier this year.

Oh, and the paper got an issue out.