Police raid Kansas newspaper office, publisher's home, seize records

The entire police force of a small Kansas town raided a local newspaper's office and the publisher's home, seizing electronics and records after the paper's investigative reporting led to a dispute with a local businesswoman.

Police raided the Marion County Record's office on Friday as well as the home of Joan Meyer and her son, Eric Meyer, who owned the newspaper together. Joan Meyer, 98, died Saturday at their home as she was stressed "beyond her limits and overwhelmed by hours of shock and grief after [the] illegal police raids," the Record reported Sunday. 

Joan Meyer was "otherwise in good health for her age" before the raid, per the paper.

The city's entire five-officer police force and two sheriff's deputies took "everything" from computers and phones to bank account information and reporting materials, Eric Meyer said, according to The Kansas Reflector. 

Meyer, who worked for two decades at the Milwaukee Journal and taught journalism for 26 years at the University of Illinois, said he has never heard of a newspaper office being raided. 

"It’s going to have a chilling effect on us even tackling issues," he said.

Marion County District Court Magistrate Judge Laura Viar signed the warrant. However, federal law requires law enforcement to subpoena materials from journalists rather than seize it through a search warrant.

Before the raid, Meyer had reported last week that Marion restaurant owner Kari Newell kicked his newspaper employees out of an event with U.S. Rep. Jake LaTurner (R-Kan.), whose staff apologized for the incident. 

Newell hostilely responded on Facebook to Meyer's reporting, and a confidential source contacted the local paper with evidence that the businesswoman had been convicted of drunken driving but still drove without a license. Such a conviction could jeopardize Newell's attempts to obtain a liquor license for her catering business. 

A reporter for the Record confirmed the information from the source, but Meyer suspected the source was Newell's husband, as he had filed for divorce. Meyer did not publish the story and instead alerted the police to the situation.

Police informed Newell about the information, who in turn claimed the paper illegally obtained classified information about her.

By Friday, police appeared at Meyer's home and the newspaper's office with a warrant alleging identity theft and unlawful computer use.

Additionally, reporter Deb Gruver said that she was injured during the raid when Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody took her cell phone out of her hand. She said she filed a report with the Kansas Bureau of Investigation about the injury.

The Marion Police Department did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Eric Meyer was a teacher for reporter Madeleine Hubbard while she attended the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Follow Madeleine on Twitter or Instagram.