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.”
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.”
Would love to know what they were...
(Freedom of the Press)
The COVID-19(84) were an excellent dry run for the Mark of the Beast.
Tyranny.
We sure do live in interesting times.
The New Normal.
“We sure do live in interesting times.”
Yes. It is going to get much worse. And unfortunately there is no place left that is better. Buckle up and get ready for a ride.
The final tree to fall. Freedom of the Press.
_________________-
Don’t forget that the people are heavily armed.
“Meyer stated that he hid his 13 week old puppy under a cardboard box so she wouldn’t be shot. So there was a semi-happy outcome of the Brown Shirt raid.”
when I was young I remember reading a book supposedly about Anne Frank.
Even in that book the ‘Nazis’ would not have shot her, or a helpless puppy.
“Don’t forget that the people are heavily armed.”
Which unfortunately will have to wait until after the ballgame is over...
Since the local SS decided to conduct an illegal raid with an illegal warrant, it appears as though their "business" now verify much includes the brave little stormtroopers out playing with their guns like good little gear-queers.
What they can publish is a Front page above the fold facial mug shot of every tough guy that conducted the raid and all others involved including the azzholes (Magistrate Judge Laura Viar) that created the illegal warrant.
Full name, area they live in, job designation, everything.
Let the town do the job on them.
No gas, no groceries, do not enter signs, whatever business the locals are running will have "You are not welcome and will not be served" signage with a copy of the front page of the paper.
The front page should look like a Wanted Poster.
Next edition rolls around they can put the mugshots up and down the left and right side of the front page.
Keep it up a few months until the local deputy dawgs have had enough and move out of the area.
"Never argue with a man who buys ink by the barrel."
Not many good expat options either
Maybe a couple
I just know that I can’t really afford healthcare now that Obama destroyed it
“I just know that I can’t really afford healthcare now that Obama destroyed it.”
Don’t feel bad. You are not the only one. All my kids have two great jobs each and barely getting by right now. It is pretty bad when both parents have to have two jobs to survive this mess. And one of those extra jobs is just to cover their share of their health insurance costs.
We are just shy of another great depression.
I think the only escapes are going to be World War III or the rapture.
I’m only half-joking.
Some Marion Co. locals will be pissed at the PD for holding up their probate proceedings due to the lack of legal notices in the local paper.
All you need is one. They exist, but people in the know keep it to themselves.
Yeah the future doesn’t look very good for my Grandchildren.
One I know of
True dat
That is good, thank you for sharing that. I grabbed it for the future!
Right on the money too.
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