The 98-year-old co-owner of a local Kansas newspaper collapsed and died one day after the Marion Police Department raided her office and her home, seizing computers and cellphones and stressing the woman “beyond her limits.”
“Stressed beyond her limits and overwhelmed by hours of shock and grief after illegal police raids on her home and the Marion County Record newspaper office Friday, 98-year-old newspaper co-owner Joan Meyer, otherwise in good health for her age, collapsed Saturday afternoon and died at her home,” The Record stated on Aug. 9. “She 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.”
The raids were led by Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody and were tied to a dispute between The Record and Kari Newell, a local restaurant owner, according to ABC News.
ABC News obtained footage of Friday’s police raid on the Marion County Record pic.twitter.com/GXgxxoMBKC
— Marisa Kabas (@marisakabas2) August 14, 2023
Newell “is accusing the newspaper of invading her privacy and illegally accessing information about her and her driving record and suggested that the newspaper targeted her after she threw Meyer and a reporter out of [her] restaurant during a political event,” the outlet reports.
Eric Meyer, Joan’s son, and the newspaper’s co-owner, editor, and publisher, dismissed Newell’s claims as untrue and pointed to the paper’s aggressive coverage of local politics and a story the paper was working on involving Cody’s previous work with Kansas City, Missouri, police.
“This is the type of stuff that, you know, that Vladimir Putin does, that Third World dictators do,” Meyer told ABC News. “This is Gestapo tactics from World War II.”
Chief Cody claims the raid was connected to an investigation and was perfectly legal.
According to several freedom of the press watchdogs, it was a violation by the Marion Police Department of the Constitution’s protection for a free press.
Sharon Brett, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas, said the raids seemed like “quite an alarming abuse of authority.”
“It seems like one of the most aggressive police raids of a news organization or entity in quite some time,” she stated.
In a statement, Seth Stern, director of advocacy for the Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF), condemned the raids.
“Based on the reporting so far, the police raid of the Marion County Record on Friday appears to have violated federal law, the First Amendment, and basic human decency,” he said. “Everyone involved should be ashamed of themselves.”
.@FreedomofPress statement on alarming police raid of Kansas newspaper https://t.co/0OxnJBiKSq
— Freedom of the Press (@FreedomofPress) August 14, 2023
According to FPF, the raid came after The Record received a tip regarding Newell’s drunk driving conviction.
Ultimately, the paper chose not to run with the story, and the search warrant was “unsupported by the required affidavit, vaguely alluding to ‘identity theft,'” FPF reports. “The warrant, signed by Judge Laura Viar, provided for seizure of a virtually limitless range of records and devices, and made no effort to protect confidential source communications.”
“This looks like the latest example of American law enforcement officers treating the press in a manner previously associated with authoritarian regimes,” Stern said. “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.”
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Melissa Fine is the former executive editor of Casino Player, Strictly Slots, and Poker
Digest magazines. She is a UCLA graduate, news junkie, and dedicated Stargate SG-
1 fan. Melissa currently lives with her dog and two cats in a tiny town in the Sierra
Nevada foothills.
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