Newspaper publisher Eric Meyer said he believes the newspaper’s dogged coverage of local politics and Police Chief Gideon Cody’s record are the main reason for the raids.
The Record was in the midst of digging into the newly hired chief’s past as a Kansas City, Missouri, police captain when the raids were carried out, but it's also clear that the raid was retaliation for researching a news story that didn't go to press, 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.
the newspaper's attorney, Bernie Rhodes said the newspaper was investigating the circumstances around Police Chief Gideon Cody’s departure from his previous job as an officer in Kansas City, Missouri.
Cody left the Kansas City department earlier this year and began the job in Marion in June. He has not responded to interview requests.
Asked if the newspaper’s investigation of Cody may have had anything to do with the decision to raid it, Rhodes responded: “I think it is a remarkable coincidence if it didn’t.”
Asked if the newspaper’s investigation of Cody may have had anything to do with the decision to raid it, Rhodes responded: “I think it is a remarkable coincidence if it didn’t.”
Marion County Record publisher Eric Meyer said he had never heard of police raiding a newspaper office during his 20 years at the Milwaukee Journal or 26 years teaching journalism at the University of Illinois.
On Friday, police raided her HOME, after ransacking the newspaper office
98 year old Joann Meyer died the next day. She had been working for the newspaper since the 50s, and was still writing a weekly column at this time.
The coroner's report listed the cause as sudden cardiac arrest.
Marion County Record publisher Eric Meyer says he believes stress from the raid played a role in his mother's death.
Her funeral will be held this upcoming Saturday.
The 1st amendment to the US Constitution, has a very special sentence... Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press..
reporting on the drunk driving conviction, with public records, in a newspaper, umm, that's both freedom of speech and the press and the police felt that their authority was supreme to that freedom of the press to complete it's duty/responsibility of reporting the news to the public.
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.
A reporter with the Marion Record used a state website to verify the information provided by the source. But Meyer suspected the source was relaying information from Newell’s husband, who had filed for divorce. Meyer decided not to publish a story about the information, and he alerted police to the situation.
Newell, writing Friday under a changed name on her personal Facebook account, said she “foolishly” received a DUI in 2008 and “knowingly operated a vehicle without a license out of necessity.”
“Journalists have become the dirty politicians of today, twisting narrative for bias agendas, full of muddied half-truths,” Newell wrote. “We rarely get facts that aren’t baited with misleading insinuations.”
She said the “entire debacle was brought forth in an attempt to smear my name, jeopardize my licensing through ABC (state Alcoholic Beverage Control Division), harm my business, seek retaliation, and for personal leverage in an ongoing domestic court battle.”
At the law enforcement center in Marion, a staff member said only Police Chief Gideon Cody could answer questions for this story, and that Cody had gone home for the day and could not be reached by phone. The office of Attorney General Kris Kobach wasn’t available to comment on the legal controversy in Marion
Meyer, whose father worked at the newspaper from 1948 until he retired, bought the Marion County Record in 1998, preventing a sale to a corporate newspaper chain.
Friday’s raids have been widely condemned by press freedom watchdogs as a blatant violation of the U.S. Constitution’s protection for a free press. Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly called the raids “concerning.” An attorney for the newspaper deemed the searches and seizures illegal and said the police department’s action “offends the constitutional protections the founding fathers gave the free press.” The Society of Professional Journalists pledged $20,000 toward the newspaper’s legal defense.
The newspaper said it was planning to file a federal lawsuit.
the newspaper's attorney, Bernie Rhodes, sent a letter to Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody, and wrote that the police “plainly violated the First, Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, as well as Sections 11, 15, and 18 of the Kansas Bill of Rights,”
The search of the newspaper and Meyer's home has garnered attention from national media groups, including the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, which sent Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody a letter condemning the raid as unconstitutional. The letter was co-signed by 34 news and media organizations, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and The AP
the newspaper's attorney, Bernie Rhodes, sent a letter to Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody, and wrote that the police “plainly violated the First, Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, as well as Sections 11, 15, and 18 of the Kansas Bill of Rights,”
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