Virtually one yr after the authorities raided The Marion County Document, a Kansas weekly newspaper, a former reporter has reached a $235,000 settlement as a part of a lawsuit she filed over the search, which set off a nationwide dialogue about press freedoms.
The settlement, dated June 25, introduced an finish to a lawsuit filed by the previous reporter, Deb Gruver, in opposition to Gideon Cody, who resigned because the Marion metropolis police chief in October within the face of mounting strain.
Ms. Gruver’s lawsuit claimed that Mr. Cody had triggered harm to her hand whereas forcibly acquiring her private cellphone through the raid. Physique-camera footage corroborated Ms. Gruver’s account, based on Eric Meyer, the newspaper’s writer.
Mr. Meyer stated on Saturday that body-camera audio recorded Mr. Cody “saying that it simply made his day.”
Ms. Gruver, who left the newspaper final fall, stated in a letter to the editor that she “not needed to work in a city the place the vast majority of ‘leaders’ clearly don’t respect the Fourth Property or the U.S. Structure,” The Document reported.
On Aug. 11, 2023, native police and county sheriff’s deputies raided the workplace of The Document and the properties of a councilwoman and Mr. Meyer. The raid on the newsroom sparked outrage and a nationwide debate over First Modification rights.
A search warrant was issued about one hour earlier than the raid by which officers searched the newsroom and opened drawers and eliminated computer systems, cellphones and different supplies from The Document’s workplace. Seven regulation enforcement officers spent greater than two hours in Mr. Meyer’s residence, the place his mom was on the time, he stated.
The authorities stated the search was a part of an investigation into how a doc, which contained details about an area restaurant proprietor’s steps to revive her driver’s license, had been obtained by the newspaper. The authorities stated that the acquisition might have constituted identification theft and different crimes.
No article containing the federal government file had been printed, and The Document stated that it had obtained the doc from a confidential supply.
Lower than every week after the raid, Marion County’s prime prosecutor, Joel Ensey, ordered officers to return the seized gadgets as a result of there was inadequate proof to justify the searches.
Two days after the searches, Joan Meyer, the 98-year-old mom of the writer and the co-owner of the paper, died, partially due to the misery brought on by the raid on her dwelling, Mr. Meyer stated.
The raid additionally got here days after The Document had questioned Mr. Cody about his departure from the Kansas Metropolis Police Division, following accusations that he had made sexist and insulting feedback.
Ms. Gruver “was the reporter who had obtained preliminary data on the police chief that we didn’t publish on the time,” Mr. Meyer stated. “The fabric for that was in her desk, and so they searched her desk through the raid.”
One other a part of her lawsuit in opposition to the county sheriff, Jeff Soyez, and Mr. Ensey stays pending. Lawsuits filed by 4 different workers of the newspaper additionally stay pending.
The town’s insurance coverage service can pay the settlement in Ms. Gruver’s case. Metropolis officers and Mr. Cody couldn’t instantly be reached for touch upon Saturday.
One of many lawsuits, filed by Mr. Meyer, is on behalf of the newspaper’s dad or mum firm and the property of Ms. Meyer. The lawsuits accuse native officers of attempting to silence the paper and say that the raids contributed to Ms. Meyer’s loss of life.
“One of many issues that we’ve seen out of that is that the individuals who have responded to us have come from throughout the political spectrum,” Mr. Meyer stated. “There aren’t too many issues on this world proper now that deliver Democrats and Republicans collectively.”
