A small Kansas town just learned an expensive lesson about press freedom after agreeing to pay over $3 million for what prosecutors now admit was an unjustified police raid on a local newspaper, reports AP. The Marion County Record's offices and publisher Eric Meyer's home were searched in August 2023 over allegations that proved baseless within days.
The raid's human cost proved devastating. Meyer's 98-year-old mother, Joan, died of a heart attack the day after watching officers search her home, with body camera footage capturing her pleading, "Get out of my house!" The stress from the raid killed someone who had survived nearly a century, only to be taken down by what can only be described as small-town authoritarianism run amok.
Police Chief Gideon Cody, who led the raid, resigned in October 2023 and now faces felony charges for interfering with the judicial process. "The raid also came after the newspaper had dug into the background of the police chief at the time who led the raid," reports the Associated Press. His criminal trial begins in February. He has pleaded not guilty. Meyer plans to use the settlement money to keep his paper running.
Previously:
• Cops raided a smalltown newspaper so no-one would ever find out about police chief Gideon Cody's alleged sexual misconduct or Kari Newell's DUI conviction
• City of Marion refuses to turn over public records after raid on local newspaper
• After police raid Kansas newspaper, its co-owner 'collapsed and died'
