Joan Meyer, 98-year-old co-owner of the Marion County Record newspaper in Marion, Kansas, died Saturday following police raids on Friday of her home and the newspaper’s offices. The raids contributed to Meyer’s death, according to the outlet.
The newspaper and numerous observers have argued that these raids of the Marion County Record offices and Meyer’s home were illegal. Warrants shown by police alleged that “there was probable cause to believe that identity theft and unlawful computer acts had been committed involving Marion business owner Kari Newell.”
Newell, who owns local restaurant Kari’s Kitchen, had alleged at a Monday city council meeting that the Record illegally obtained drunken driving information about Newell and had supplied it to Marion vice mayor Ruth Herbel. Herbel’s home was also raided by police at the same time as Meyer and the paper.
According to the Record, it had been supplied with information indicating that Newell had an invalid driver’s license — it was suspended in 2008 following a drunken-driving conviction — and that law enforcement was aware of this, but ignored Newell driving illegally. The paper had declined to publish the information and stated that its source sent the information to both the paper and Herbel. That information was believed to have been leaked as part of divorce proceeding disputes between Newell and her estranged husband.
County attorney Joel Ensey was asked by the Record for the affidavit used to issue the warrant, but he declined to release it and said it was “not a public document,” according to the Record. There was also no copy of the document filed with the district court.
Ensey’s brother owns the hotel which houses Newell’s restaurant.
Meyer was “otherwise in good health for her age,” according the paper, but was “stressed beyond her limits and overwhelmed by hours of shock and grief” after the raids and collapsed Saturday afternoon, dying at her home.
“[Meyer] had not been able to eat after police showed up at the door of her home Friday with a search warrant in hand. Neither was she able to sleep Friday night. She tearfully watched during the raid,” the paper writes.
Police seized computers from the Record’s offices, including the newspaper’s file server and other equipment which the paper writes was unrelated to the search. The items were necessary for publishing the paper, according to the Record, but they have obtained other equipment to allow for publication.
The Record plans to file a federal suit against both the city and those involved in the search.
“Our first priority is to be able to publish next week,” Meyer’s son and the Record’s publisher Eric Meyer told the Record, “but we also want to make sure no other news organization is ever exposed to the Gestapo tactics we witnessed today.”
The Marion Police Department issued a statement Saturday, declining to comment specifically on the case but providing general comments about its actions.
While conceding that the law normally protects journalists from most newsroom searches and requires police to use subpoenas instead of search warrants, they noted that this doesn’t apply if the journalists “are suspects in the offense that is the subject of the search.”
“I believe when the rest of the story is available to the public, the judicial system that is being questioned will be vindicated,” the post from the department reads. “The victim asks that we do all the law allows to ensure justice is served. The Marion Kansas Police Department will do nothing less.”
The last post from the Marion Police Department before their defense of the raid was about a meeting hosted at Kari’s Kitchen with U.S. Rep. Jake LaTurner and a state representative, thanking Newell for the invitation. Attendees included Marion’s police chief.
