City, officials on hook in lawsuit over newspaper raid

(CN) — Marion, Kansas, law enforcement officers will face most of a lawsuit accusing them of using bogus criminal suspicions to raid the offices of local newspaper as well as the home of its publisher during a local political feud.

U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree in Kansas City on Friday mostly denied the motions by city and county officials to dismiss the claims brought by Eric Meyer, the owner of the Marion County Record.

The judge agreed the publisher and the other plaintiffs had met their burden to state a plausible claim that city’s then-mayor and police officers as well as the county sheriff conspired to seek search warrants based on false information to search the newspaper’s offices and seize computers.

“At this procedural juncture, the court concludes that plaintiffs have alleged a cognizable conspiracy theory,” Crabtree wrote. “The amended complaint alleges that the conspiracy had a clear goal, that the defendants took specific actions to carry out the plan and that each defendant participated in the conspiracy.”

The judge also found the plaintiffs could proceed with their claims against most defendants that they had been subjected to unreasonable searches in violation of the Fourth Amendment rights.

Likewise, the judge allowed the plaintiffs to proceed with most of their First Amendment claims. However, he dismissed the municipal liability claim against the city and the county that was premised on a failure to train their law enforcement officers.

“A plaintiff can’t state a cognizable failure-to-train claim against a municipality when the situation’s proper response is obvious to all without training,” Crabtree said. “The allegations in the amended complaint — retaliating against the press for political revenge — are so manifestly wrong that the city’s failure to provide direct training on it doesn’t raise an inference of deliberate indifference.”

The dismissal of some of the claims against the individual defendants and the municipalities was without prejudice, so Meyer could try to rectify the shortcomings in an amended complaint.

“When the judge wrote that the allegations against the various city and county officials were ‘astonishing,’ he agreed with every other person in America who has heard about what happened that day in Marion, Kansas,” Bernie Rhodes, an attorney for Meyer, said in an email. “This cannot happen again anywhere in this country.”

Attorneys for the city and county didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The raid of the newspaper’s offices quickly became infamous, thrusting Marion, population 1,943, into a national uproar over freedom of the press.

The day after the raid, Eric Meyer’s 98-year-old mother Joan — who was present during the search of his home — died. Joan Meyer was still involved in the publication of the family newspaper, and her son has cited stress from the raids as a cause.

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, individually and as executor of the estate of his mother, and Hoch Publishing Company, which does business as the Marion County Record, filed suit April 1, 2024, against the city of Marion, its former mayor David Mayfield, former police chief Gideon Cody, and other officials in connection to the raid, accusing 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.

In Friday’s ruling, the judge also rebuffed the city and the county’s bids to dismiss the Privacy Protection Act claims.

Meyer’s initial lawsuit painted 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 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 initial 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.”

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. Sheriff Jeff Soyez and District Attorney Joel Ensey were later added as defendants.

Gruver later settled with Cody for $235,000, nonprofit news organization Kansas Reflector has reported. She said she planned to create a journalism scholarship with some of the proceeds.

Reporter Phyllis Zorn sued in February 2024 and office manager Cheri Bentz filed suit the next month. All the cases are in federal court.

Cody also faces a criminal charge related to the newspaper raid. A special prosecutor charged him with felony obstruction of justice, accusing him of persuading a potential witness to withhold information from investigators looking into his conduct, The Associated Press has reported.

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