- Oct 17, 2011
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MARION, Kan. — The police chief who led a widely criticized raid of a newspaper office in Kansas told a judge that a reporter there accessed a restaurant owner’s driving record from a state database and could not have done so without “either impersonating the victim or lying about the reasons why the record was being sought,” according to confidential court records used to obtain a search warrant for the premises.
In sworn affidavits that have not previously been reported, Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody also wrote that the Kansas Department of Revenue had confirmed to him that Marion County Record reporter Phyllis Zorn had downloaded the private record. The documents provide the first public accounting of the evidence that was cited to justify the raid.
Zorn confirmed to The Washington Post that she downloaded the record, a process that involves entering a name, date of birth and driver’s license number. She said she did so to verify information she had received from a source. The newspaper’s editor and publisher, Eric Meyer, said he does not believe Zorn committed a crime. He said that the record was accessed for research purposes and that there was no intent to use it maliciously. “There is no criminal intent,” he said.
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It's a twisty small-town bag of snakes. To sum up:
[The estranged husband of the restaurant owner was worried she was driving his car without a license and whether she should have a liquor license. He received a screenshot of her driving record from someone he hasn't named [who might be Pam Maag, who once worked in law enforcement]. He then gave it to his friend Pam Maag, who gave it to council member Ruth Herbel [who wanted to use it to block the liquor license] and to the reporter Zorn.]
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Maag said she didn’t think someone with a suspended driver’s license should be eligible for a liquor license and that she had no regrets about how she handled it.
The eligible reasons [for downloading driving information] ... include that users are requesting their own records or are licensed private investigators. The only reason that references research is about statistical reports that will not disclose individuals’ personal information. There is no exception listed for media research.
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Even if we put the worst possible construction on the journalist's and paper's actions, it's hard to see how we get from there to seizure of computers and cellphones. And obviously the local prosecutor quickly agreed there was “insufficient evidence” for the search, returning all the evidence.
In sworn affidavits that have not previously been reported, Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody also wrote that the Kansas Department of Revenue had confirmed to him that Marion County Record reporter Phyllis Zorn had downloaded the private record. The documents provide the first public accounting of the evidence that was cited to justify the raid.
Zorn confirmed to The Washington Post that she downloaded the record, a process that involves entering a name, date of birth and driver’s license number. She said she did so to verify information she had received from a source. The newspaper’s editor and publisher, Eric Meyer, said he does not believe Zorn committed a crime. He said that the record was accessed for research purposes and that there was no intent to use it maliciously. “There is no criminal intent,” he said.
--
It's a twisty small-town bag of snakes. To sum up:
[The estranged husband of the restaurant owner was worried she was driving his car without a license and whether she should have a liquor license. He received a screenshot of her driving record from someone he hasn't named [who might be Pam Maag, who once worked in law enforcement]. He then gave it to his friend Pam Maag, who gave it to council member Ruth Herbel [who wanted to use it to block the liquor license] and to the reporter Zorn.]
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Maag said she didn’t think someone with a suspended driver’s license should be eligible for a liquor license and that she had no regrets about how she handled it.
The eligible reasons [for downloading driving information] ... include that users are requesting their own records or are licensed private investigators. The only reason that references research is about statistical reports that will not disclose individuals’ personal information. There is no exception listed for media research.
--
Even if we put the worst possible construction on the journalist's and paper's actions, it's hard to see how we get from there to seizure of computers and cellphones. And obviously the local prosecutor quickly agreed there was “insufficient evidence” for the search, returning all the evidence.
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