(CN) — Days after describing so-called radical journalists as among “the real villains in America” in a Facebook post, the then-mayor of a small Kansas town directed his police chief to investigate the local newspaper. A subsequent raid on its offices and on the publisher's home led to the death of the publisher's elderly mother, the newspaper's parent company claims in a lawsuit filed in federal court in Kansas.
Eric Meyer, individually and as executor of the estate of his mother, Joan Meyer, and Hoch Publishing Company, which does business as the Marion County Record, are suing the City of Marion, its former Mayor David Mayfield, former Police Chief Gideon Cody, and other officials in connection to the Aug. 11 raid on the Marion County Record in central Kansas.
That day, local law enforcement also searched the home that Eric Meyer shared with his mother, Joan Meyer, 98, who served as co-owner of the paper. She died the next day after "a sudden cardiac arrest brought on by the stress of the illegal raid," the plaintiffs say in the 127-page complaint.
They accuse the officials of violating the First and Fourth Amendments and the Privacy Protection Act of 1980, and failing to train, supervise, discipline and control police officers.
The application for the search warrant was full of false statements, the search warrants were overbroad, and the seizures by law enforcement exceeded the scope of the warrant, the plaintiffs say.
"Eric Meyer and the Record bring this lawsuit to seek justice for the intolerable violation of their constitutional rights and the constitutional rights of Joan Meyer, and to deter the next crazed cop from threatening democracy the way Chief Cody did when he hauled away the newspaper’s computers and its reporters’ cell phones in an ill-fated attempt to silence the press," the plaintiffs say in the complaint.
The raid and search quickly became infamous, thrusting Marion, population 1,943, into a national uproar over freedom of the press uproar; the searches alarmed legal scholars and press freedom advocates.
Many experts who spoke to Courthouse News in the wake of the raid and search said officials' actions might have violated the Privacy Protection Act of 1980, which prohibits authorities from using search warrants to obtain journalists’ work products without probable cause, and requires authorities to instead use a subpoena, which news organizations can then challenge.
The searches were prompted by a complaint from local restaurant owner Kari Newell, who accused the newspaper of invading her privacy by obtaining copies of her driving record, which included a 2008 conviction for driving under the influence. The official spokesperson for the Kansas Department of Revenue, which operates the public-facing website the Record consulted, confirmed after the raid that its use by reporters was legal.
Meyer's lawsuit paints a picture of a town riven by a toxic political climate, where Mayfield attacked Meyer and Vice Mayor Ruth Herbel because they opposed an amendment to the city's charter. A recall effort was launched against Herbel, with supporters linking Meyer and the newspaper to Herbel.
Meyer's editorials in the Record have referred to Mayfield "as a dictator, a bully, as someone who 'shows disdain for the democratic process,'" Meyer and the other plaintiffs say in the complaint.
The suit contains images of Mayfield's reposting of a Facebook post by his wife, which says, in part: "... if anyone is interested in signing the petition to recall councilor Herbel and silence the MCR in the process, let me know." The plaintiffs say MCR is an acronym for the Marion County Record.
"The real villains in America aren't Black people. They aren't white people. They aren't Asians. They aren't Latinos. They aren't women. They aren't gays," Mayfield's July 24 reads. "They are the radical 'journalists,' 'teachers' & 'professors' who do nothing but sow division between the American people."
The other officials named as defendants are acting Marion Police Chief Zach Hudlin, Marion County Sheriff Jeff Soyez, Marion County Detective Aaron Christner, and the Marion County Board of Commissioners, who are not individually named. None of the defendants could immediately be reached for comment Monday night.
Reporter Debbie "Deb" Gruver was the first to sue in connection with the raid, filing on Aug. 30, 2023, with Cody as the sole defendant. Mediation is that case is scheduled for Tuesday with trial set for Aug. 2, 2025, in Wichita. Reporter Phyllis Zorn sued in February, and office manager Cheri Bentz filed suit Friday. All of the cases are in federal court.
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