The following story is important.
Marion, KS, law enforcement raided the Marion County Record’s office and the home of the publisher/owner on Friday.
Marion is located 60 miles north of Wichita.
Co-owner and publisher Eric Meyer thinks a story about a local business owner from Wednesday triggered the raid. The authorities claimed the raid happened because of identity theft.
Over 34 news organizations and press freedom groups condemned the Marion police for the raid, fearing the impact it will have on the press.
Meyer said they took his phone, a computer router, and an old laptop from his home:
Officials conducted the raid after Marion County Court Magistrate Judge Laura Viar signed a search warrant Friday morning, which alleges violations of identity theft and “unlawful acts concerning computers.”The search warrant identified a list of items law enforcement officials were allowed to seize, including “documents and records pertaining to Kari Newell,” the business owner who was the subject of the story, Meyer said.The warrant also specifically targeted ownership of computers and devices or internet service accounts used to “participate in the identify theft of Kari Newell,” he added.
The search warrant allowed the police to seize “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.”
Meyer also said that the police injured a reporter when they grabbed a phone out of her hand.
The small town’s five-officer police force and two deputies took part in the raids.
Here is a copy of the search warrant.
A Kansas Bureau of Investigation spokesperson admitted the Marion police asked the bureau to help “with an investigation into ‘illegal access and dissemination of confidential criminal justice information.'”
According to Meyer, it all started earlier this month when Kari Newell kicked him out along with his reporter Phyllis Zorn from a public meeting with Rep. Jake LaTurner, who represents the area:
Newell confirmed to CNN that she had asked Meyer and his reporter to leave during the public meet-and-greet event with Rep. LaTurner because she believes the newspaper “has a long-standing reputation for twisting and contorting comments within our community.”“When they came into the establishment, I quietly and politely asked them to exit,” Newell said. “I didn’t feel that their constituents needed to be exposed to any risk of being misquoted.”
Then Meyer and Zorn received a tip about Newell’s drunk driving conviction and how she drove without a license.
Meyer believed someone found out the information from Newell’s husband, who filed for divorce. He also knew the information could jeopardize Newell’s liquor license.
Meyer did not publish the story but told the police about it:
“We thought we were being set up,” Meyer said.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.
Newell went off on the newspaper at a city council meeting. The paper clarified everything in an article on Thursday.
Meyer said his 98-year-old mother, Joan, who is also a co-owner, died less than 24 hours after the raid. The Marion County Record reported on Saturday:
Marion Police Department Chief Gideon Cody told CNN he could not discuss anything about an ongoing investigation:
“I believe when the rest of the story is available to the public, the judicial system that is being questioned will be vindicated,” Chief Cody told CNN in a statement. “I appreciate all the assistance from all the state and local investigators along with the entire judicial process thus far.”Cody explained in most cases, police are required to use subpoenas rather than search warrants to search the premises of journalists “unless they themselves are suspects in the offense that is the subject of the search.”Cody added while the Federal Privacy Protection Act protects journalists from most searches of newsrooms by federal and state law enforcement officials, there are certain exceptions in limited circumstances where a subpoena is not needed, including “when there is reason to believe the journalist is taking part in the underlying wrongdoing.”
The judge and the Kansas attorney general offices gave a generic statement:
CNN has reached out to Marion County Court Magistrate Judge Laura Viar, who signed the search warrant, and Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, who oversees the Kansas Bureau of Investigation that confirmed to CNN the newspaper’s records are being investigated.“The Marion Police Department and the Marion County Attorney asked the Kansas Bureau of Investigation to join an investigation into the illegal access and dissemination of confidential criminal justice information,” the agency’s communications director Melissa Underwood told CNN.
The First Amendment is vital to the survival of the nation, state, county, city, town, etc.
The Marion County Record did not publish an article about Newell’s information. Meyer admitted one of the reporters confirmed the information by “using the state’s records available online.”
Newell herself confirmed the information given to the newspaper by the source. The paper only published an article when Newell complained about the newspaper at a city council meeting.
Other publications and watchdog groups are furious over the raid:
Press freedom and civil rights organizations agreed that police, the local prosecutor’s office and the judge who signed off on the search warrant overstepped their authority.“It seems like one of the most aggressive police raids of a news organization or entity in quite some time,” said Sharon Brett, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas, adding that it seemed “quite an alarming abuse of authority.”Seth Stern, director of advocacy for Freedom of the Press Foundation, said in a statement that the raid appeared to have violated federal law, the First Amendment, “and basic human decency.”“The anti-press rhetoric that’s become so pervasive in this country has become more than just talk and is creating a dangerous environment for journalists trying to do their jobs,” Stern said.
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press sent a letter signed by 34 news and press freedom organizations to Cody:
“Newsroom searches and seizures are among the most intrusive actions law enforcement can take with respect to the free press, and the most potentially suppressive of free speech by the press and the public,” the letter said.—“Based on public reporting, the search warrant that has been published online, and your public statements to the press, there appears to be no justification for the breadth and intrusiveness of the search —particularly when other investigative steps may have been available — and we are concerned that it may have violated federal law strictly limiting federal, state, and local law enforcement’s ability to conduct newsroom searches,” the letter said.
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