14 August 2023
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – The publisher of a long-standing Marion County Register said his paper was raided this week by the Marion Police Department, who took computers, servers and cell phones.
The incident is a violation of first amendment rights, according to publisher Eric Meyers.
The paper is struggling to make its Tuesday publishing deadline while missing essential equipment, according to publisher Eric Meyers, who said the investigation by Marion police was unfounded.
According to Meyers, there were questions about a story one week before police came into his business. His newspaper notified the sheriff and the police chief that they’d obtained documents from the state that a local business owner had driven on a suspended license after getting a DUI.
“They started the investigation because we told them this document had come into us with the allegation that police were ignoring the driving for 14 years or something like that,” Meyers said.
The Marion County Register told law enforcement they had no plans to publish the information in a story, but one week later police came into the building and seized equipment, according to Meyers. They also went into his home, Meyers said.
The co-owner of the newspaper Joan Meyers, who is also Meyer’s mother, died a day after the raid into her home.
“I asked the coroner who had previously been one of her attending physicians, I said, ‘Do you think the stress caused this?'” Meyers said. “He says, ‘Absolutely.’ In other words, they killed my mother.”
The raid was an unnecessary show of power and a violation of the freedom of the press, according to Meyers.
In a statement, the Marion Police Department said they had a right to search a new agency office if a journalist was suspected of a crime listed in a search warrant.
The Kansas Bureau of investigation said it assigned an agent to the case earlier in the week at the request of the Marion county attorney. The KBI was asked to join an investigation into allegations of illegal access of confidential criminal justice information, according to the agency. The KBI was not present when the warrants were served.
For now, even though the paper lost vital equipment taken by police, Meyers said the plan is to publish the weekly issue Tuesday.
“We will publish the newspaper,” Meyers said. “We will publish the newspaper if I have to grab a pencil and write it on a piece of paper and hand it to everybody as they walk around the town.”)
Meyers plans to sue over the incident.
Meantime, dozens of news organizations including CNN, The Washington Post and the Associated Press signed a four page letter condemning the actions of the police department.