A Kansas county agrees to pay $3 million and apologize over a raid on a
small-town newspaper
[November 12, 2025]
By JOHN HANNA and HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A rural Kansas county has agreed to pay a little
more than $3 million and apologize over a law enforcement raid on a
small-town weekly newspaper in August 2023 that sparked an outcry over
press freedom.
Marion County sheriff's officers were involved in the raid on the Marion
County Record and helped draft search warrants used by Marion city
police to enter the newspaper's offices, the publisher's home and the
home of a local city council member.
“They intentionally wanted to harass us for reporting the news, and
you’re not supposed to do that in a democracy,” the editor and
publisher, Eric Meyer, said Tuesday. He added he hoped the payment was
large enough to discourage similar actions against other news
organizations in the future.
The raid prompted five federal lawsuits against the county, the city of
Marion and local officials. Meyer's 98-year-old mother Joan, the paper's
co-owner, died of a heart attack the next day, something he blames on
the stress of the raid.
During the raid, authorities seized cellphones and computers from the
newsroom and rifled through reporters’ desks. Search warrants linked the
raid to a dispute between a local restaurant owner and the newspaper,
which had obtained a copy of her driving record while reporting on her
request for a city liquor license. The raid also came after the
newspaper had dug into the background of the police chief at the time
who led the raid.
The raid triggered a national debate about press freedom focused on
Marion, a town of about 1,900 people set among rolling prairie hills
some 150 miles (240 kilometers) southwest of Kansas City, Missouri.
Police body camera footage from Meyer’s home showed his mother, who
lived with him, visibly upset and telling officers, “Get out of my
house!”
An attorney for the newspaper, Bernie Rhodes, released a copy Tuesday of
the five-page agreement resolving legal claims against the county.
Claims against the city and city officials have not been settled, and
Meyer said he believes they will face a larger judgment once those
claims are eventually resolved.
Marion County's administrator and attorneys for the city and county did
not immediately return messages seeking comment.
Raid's legality was questioned
Under the judgment, the estate of Meyer's mother will receive $1
million. Meyer, two former Record reporters and the paper's business
manager will split $1.1 million, and Ruth Herbel, the former city
council member, will receive $650,000. Meyer said he's considering a
fund to ensure that the paper remains financially viable or a program to
encourage young journalists to work in communities like his.
“The goal isn’t to get the money. The money is symbolic,” Meyer said.
“The press has basically been under assault.”
Three days after the raid, the local prosecutor said there wasn't enough
evidence to justify it. Experts said Marion's police chief at the time,
Gideon Cody, was on legally shaky ground when he ordered it, and a
former top federal prosecutor for Kansas suggested it might have been a
criminal violation of civil rights.
Doug Anstaett, a retired Kansas Press Association executive director,
said Tuesday that the raid violated the state's shield law for
journalists. It allows law enforcement agencies to seek subpoenas to
obtain confidential information from news organizations but requires
them to show a compelling interest and that they can’t obtain it in
another way. Anstaett was the association's executive director when the
law was enacted in 2010.
[to top of second column]
|
A stack of the Marion County Record sits in the back of the
newspaper's building, awaiting unbundling, sorting and distribution,
Aug. 16, 2023, in Marion, Kan. A former reporter for a weekly Kansas
newspaper has agreed to accept $235,000 to settle part of her
federal lawsuit over a police raid on the paper that made a small
town the focus of a national debate over press freedoms. (AP
Photo/John Hanna, File)
The Record is known for its aggressive coverage of local issues, and
Anstaett suggested police where trying to “get at” Meyer because of
his adversarial relationships with local officials, adding, “it
totally backfired.”
“They didn’t follow any of those requirements and therefore it was
really a slam dunk in terms of whether they broke the law or not,”
he said.
Genelle Belmas, a University of Kansas professor who teaches media
law, described the raid as “an egregious violation of the First
Amendment rights” of Meyer and the weekly.
“I share his hope that an award of this size serves as a deterrent
against future ill-conceived warrants with political motivations,"
she said. "And no amount of money brings Joan Meyer back. We need to
stay vigilant against government incursions on the press.”
Sheriff issues apology
The search warrants were premised on the idea that the newspaper and
a reporter had illegally impersonated the local restaurant owner to
obtain her driving record online and that the former city council
member Herbel illegally circulated it by sending a cellphone
screenshot to the city manager.
Two special prosecutors who reviewed the raid and its aftermath said
nearly a year later that the Record, its staff and Herbel had
committed no crimes before the raid. The prosecutors also said the
warrants signed by a judge contained inaccurate information from an
“inadequate investigation” and that the searches were not legally
justified. Cody resigned as police chief in October 2023.
Cody is scheduled to go to trial in February in Marion County on a
felony charge of interfering with a judicial process, accused by the
two special prosecutors of persuading a potential witness to
withhold information from authorities investigating his conduct. He
had pleaded not guilty and did not respond to a text message Tuesday
seeking comment about the county's agreement.
The charge against Cody stems from text messages between him and the
business owner after the raid. The business owner has said Cody
asked her to delete text messages between them, fearing people could
get a wrong idea about their relationship, which she said was
professional and platonic.
The Marion County Commission approved the agreement Monday after
discussing it in private for 15 minutes.
The agreement required Sheriff Jeff Soyez to issue an apology.
“The Sheriff’s Office wishes to express its sincere regrets to Eric
and Joan Meyer and Ruth and Ronald Herbel for its participation in
the drafting and execution of the Marion County Police Department’s
search warrants on their homes and the Marion County Record," the
sheriff's statement said.
___
Hollingsworth reported from Mission, Kansas.
All contents © copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
