A horrific assault on freedom of the press!
Joan Meyer, the 98-year-old co-owner of the Marion County Document -a weekly newspaper printed in Marion, Kansas- tragically handed away after an unprecedented police raid on her residence and the newspaper workplace on Friday.
Town of Marion’s five-officer police pressure, together with two sheriff’s deputies, performed the raid on the Marion County Document’s workplace and the house of proprietor and writer Eric Meyer. The stunning operation left Joan Meyer, Eric’s mom, and co-owner of the paper, useless, and has been characterised by Meyer as an assault on press freedom.
The raid got here on the heels of a bitter feud between the Marion County Document and a neighborhood restaurant proprietor, Kari Newell. The newspaper had reportedly acquired delicate paperwork probably resulting in the revocation of Newell’s liquor license. These paperwork included proof of drunk driving convictions and working a automobile with out a license.
Whereas the paper determined to not report the story, it did notify the police in regards to the paperwork, suspecting they had been leaked by somebody near Newell’s ex-husband.
In response, Newell publicly accused the paper of illegally acquiring and disseminating the knowledge. The newspaper printed a narrative to make clear its place, however this was rapidly adopted by Friday’s raid.
The search warrant towards the Document licensed the seizure of a wide selection of things, together with pc {hardware} and software program, digital communications, mobile networks, servers, onerous drives, utility information, and paperwork associated to Newell. Particularly, the warrant centered on the possession of computer systems that might be concerned within the alleged “identification theft of Kari Newell.”
Through the raid, police not solely seized computer systems and web routers from the Meyers’ residence but in addition dug by way of Eric Meyer’s private financial institution and funding statements. Joan Meyer, ready for a Meals on Wheels supply on the time, reportedly watched tearfully because the police performed their search. The distressing occasion left her unable to eat or sleep, contributing to her dying, based on the newspaper.
Along with Joan Meyer’s dying, one of many newspaper’s reporters was injured when an officer grabbed her cellphone out of her hand.
Regardless of the outcry and the tragic consequence, the Marion Kansas Police Division has defended its actions. They declare that federal protections didn’t lengthen to the journalists, as they had been suspected of prison exercise.
In a statement per New York Submit, the division emphasised its dedication to making sure justice, stating, “The sufferer [Newell] asks that we do all of the regulation permits to make sure justice is served. The Marion Kansas Police Division will [do] nothing much less.”
Extra from Marion Document:
A two-page warrant signed by Justice of the Peace Laura Viar was given to the Document on the time of the search.
Marion vice mayor Ruth Herbel’s residence additionally was raided on the identical time.
The warrants alleged there was possible trigger to consider that identification theft and illegal pc acts had been dedicated involving Marion enterprise proprietor Kari Newell.
A Document reporter later requested a duplicate of the possible trigger affidavit vital for issuance of the search warrant
District court docket, the place such gadgets are imagined to be filed, issued a signed assertion saying no affidavit was on file.
County lawyer Joel Ensey, whose brother owns the lodge the place Newell operates her restaurant, was requested for it however stated he wouldn’t launch it as a result of it was “not a public doc.”
Eric Meyer, 69, the Document’s proprietor and writer, has vowed to hunt authorized retribution towards the Metropolis of Marion and people concerned within the raid. Authorized specialists consulted by the paper reportedly agree that the town violated federal legal guidelines and the group’s Constitutional rights.
Authorized specialists contacted by the Document termed the raid extraordinary in America and paying homage to what happens in totalitarian regimes and the Third World.
The Document is predicted to file a federal swimsuit towards the Metropolis of Marion and people concerned within the search, which authorized specialists contacted had been unanimous in saying violated a number of state and federal legal guidelines, together with the U.S. Structure, and a number of court docket rulings.
“Our first precedence is to have the ability to publish subsequent week,” Meyer stated, “however we additionally need to make sure that no different information group is ever uncovered to the Gestapo ways we witnessed right this moment. We shall be in search of the utmost sanctions doable below regulation.”