“The sheriff’s office wishes to express its sincere regrets to Eric and Joan Meyer and Ruth and Ronald Herbel for its participation in the drafting and execution of the Marion county police department’s search warrants on their homes and the Marion County Record,” the sheriff’s statement this week said.
It began when a confidential source leaked evidence that a local restaurant proprietor, Kari Newell, had been convicted of drunk driving but continued using her car without a license. The Record never published anything related to the information because its staff reportedly suspected the source was relaying information from Newell’s husband during their divorce.
Nonetheless, after police notified Newell that the information was going around, she alleged at a local city council meeting that the newspaper had illegally obtained and disseminated sensitive documents, which was not true. Newell, who later acknowledged the drunk-driving arrest as well as driving with a suspended license, insinuated that the leak was meant to jeopardize her license to serve alcohol and harm her business, and had police remove reporters for the Record from the meeting.
The newspaper responded with a story to set the record straight. Then came the police raids, authorized by a search warrant alleging identity theft as well as unlawful use of a computer. Items seized by police included computers, cellphones and reporting materials found at the newspaper’s offices as well as the homes of its reporters and co-owners.
Marion’s police chief at the time, Gideon Cody, is scheduled to go to trial in February in Marion county on a felony charge of interfering with a judicial process, accused by the two special prosecutors of persuading a potential witness to withhold information from authorities when they later investigated his conduct.
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