Posted on 08/12/2023 10:06:31 AM PDT by algore
MARION — In an unprecedented raid Friday, local law enforcement seized computers, cellphones and reporting materials from the Marion County Record office, the newspaper’s reporters, and the publisher’s home.
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 raid followed news stories 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.
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.
“It’s going to have a chilling effect on us even tackling issues,” Meyer said, as well as “a chilling effect on people giving us information.”
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.
Emily Bradbury, executive director of the Kansas Press Association, said the police raid is unprecedented in Kansas.
“An attack on a newspaper office through an illegal search is not just an infringement on the rights of journalists but an assault on the very foundation of democracy and the public’s right to know,” Bradbury said. “This cannot be allowed to stand.”
Meyer reported last week that Marion restaurant owner Kari Newell had kicked newspaper staff out of a public forum with LaTurner, whose staff was apologetic. Newell responded to Meyer’s reporting with hostile comments on her personal Facebook page.
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.
Police notified Newell, who then complained at a city council meeting that the newspaper had illegally obtained and disseminated sensitive documents, which isn’t true. Her public comments prompted the newspaper to set the record straight in a story published Thursday.
Sometime before 11 a.m. Friday, officers showed up simultaneously at Meyer’s home and the newspaper office. They presented a search warrant that alleges identity theft and unlawful use of a computer.
The search warrant identifies two pages worth of items that law enforcement officers were allowed to seize, including computer software and hardware, digital communications, cellular networks, servers and hard drives, items with passwords, utility records, and all documents and records pertaining to Newell.
The warrant specifically targeted ownership of computers capable of being used to “participate in the identity theft of Kari Newell.”
Officers injured a reporter’s finger by grabbing her cellphone out of her hand, Meyer said. Officers at his home took photos of his bank account information.
He said officers told him the computers, cellphones and other devices would be sent to a lab.
“I don’t know when they’ll get it back to us,” Meyer said. “They won’t tell us.”
The seized computers, server and backup hard drive include advertisements and legal notices that were supposed to appear in the next edition of the newspaper.
“I don’t know what we’re going to do,” he said. “We will publish something.”
Need to say: This is in Kansas
just more chipping away at the rights that use to make this nation great.
Big lawsuits and lots of bad press.
Hang the Mickey Mouse Judge out to dry too.
So Kansas does not follow the Constitution?
Well, the Daily Mail did finally provide a hint in the eighth paragraph. There are only about six Marion Counties in the U.S., so I guess you’re supposed to know automatically.
Were they in swat gear? Pussies. Reporters are mostly lefties. They’re always the last to know they are first to go when they abet totalitarianism.
The final tree to fall. Freedom of the Press.
I’ll bet you a dollar restaurant owner Newell and magistrate Viar are pals.
And as for the police, when given the chance to ransack a place, they will gleefully do so.
It’s just lucky the newspaper owner didn’t have a dog on the premises.
Because if he did, I’ll bet you another dollar the cops would have shot it.
Perfectly understandable. He was living in a cocoon.
Surely no one is trying to warn the newspaper away before they uncover some sort of evidence of corruption. Surely.
Those in government that participate in abusing rights enshrined in the Constitution should receive the the death penalty. There are no second chances.
It’s the “new normal”.
Thank you. That should have been in the title (Kansas).
“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.”
“Perfectly understandable. He was living in a cocoon.”
Well, it’s not a newspaper office but law enforcement did raid the offices of Project Veritas not too long ago.
While “law enforcement” harasses mothers of schoolkids, Catholics who like Latin and people who say the wrong words, rape, murder, theft and arson are allowed to flourish.
They were likely bad mouthing Biden or the Covid vaccine, or supporting Trump. The feds have taught law enforcement that lying to get search warrants is okay. Judges don’t mind either so long as it’s for the “right” cause.
“Officers at his home took photos of his bank account information”
Two can play the same game. Demand confiscation of all involved phones and communications.
Need to say: This is in Kansas
So Kansas does not follow the Constitution?
/\
. well,, the Nazi state of oregon has a marion County as well, where the state capital of salem is.
And with the clown show of the Andy Ngo attack trial this last week it crossed my mind this might have been Oregon.
I was also wondering and appreciated the additional info.
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