A county in central Kansas has agreed to pay more than $3 million and apologize for a 2023 raid on local newspaper that raised press freedom concerns and turned the small town of Marion, Kan., into a battleground over the First Amendment.
Under the terms of the agreement reached on Monday, county officials pledged to pay $1.2 million to Eric Meyer, the editor of The Marion County Record, and the estate of his mother, Joan, a former editor and associate publisher of the paper. The county also agreed to pay $300,000 to the company that publishes the paper, according to documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas.
Another $650,000 will be paid to Ruth Herbel, the city’s former vice mayor, and her husband, whose home was raided, and $900,000 will be divided among two reporters and another member of the newspaper’s staff, according to Bernie Rhodes, a lawyer for the paper.
As part of the agreement, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office also issued a statement in which it expressed its “sincere regrets” for its participation in the drafting and execution of the warrants that were used to search the newspaper’s office and Mr. Meyer’s and Ms. Herbel’s homes.
“This likely would not have happened if established law had been reviewed and applied prior to the execution of the warrants,” the Sheriff’s Office said.
A lawyer for Marion County did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
On Aug. 11, 2023, police officers and county sheriff’s deputies raided the office of The Record and the two homes. The raid of The Record’s newsroom drew condemnation from free speech advocates and touched off a nationwide debate over First Amendment rights.
During the raid, officers searched the newsroom, rifling through drawers and removing computers, cellphones and other materials. Mr. Meyer told The New York Times in 2023 that seven law enforcement officials spent more than two hours in his home, which he was sharing with his 98-year-old mother at the time.
The authorities said the search was part of an investigation into how the newspaper had obtained a government document that contained information about a local restaurant owner’s steps to restore her driver’s license. The acquisition of that document, the authorities said, may have constituted identity theft and other crimes.
No article citing the document had been published, and The Record said that it had obtained it from a confidential source.
Less than a week after the raid, Marion County’s top prosecutor, Joel Ensey, ordered officials to return the seized devices because there was insufficient evidence to justify the searches.
Joan Meyer died a day after the searches. In an interview for her obituary, Mr. Meyer told The Times that the coroner had concluded that the stress of the searches was a contributing factor in her death.
Of the $1.2 million that the county agreed to pay Mr. Meyer, he will collect $1 million as the executor of his mother’s estate, with the remaining $200,000 going to him as an individual, according to the legal documents.
“She might actually have liked the fact that she became somewhat of a martyr to freedom of the press,” Mr. Meyer said in an interview on Tuesday. “Seeing this victory would be her vindication.”
Mr. Meyer said that he considered the money an endowment that may help his newspaper weather difficult economic times, and that he has also considered using part of it to establish a grant for young journalists to work in small newsrooms across the country.
“Instead of putting us out of business, they’re guaranteeing that we stay in business,” he said of the county and city officials who led the raids.
Monday’s agreement is part of an extended legal battle, with the paper and its employees on one side and Marion County and the City of Marion on the other.
In July 2024, Deb Gruver, a former reporter at The Record reached a $235,000 settlement as part of a lawsuit she filed against Marion’s former police chief, Gideon Cody, who resigned under pressure in October 2023.
Ms. Gruver’s lawsuit claimed that Mr. Cody had injured her hand while forcibly seizing her personal cellphone during the raid. Body-camera footage corroborated Ms. Gruver’s account, according to Mr. Meyer.
The raid also came after The Record questioned Mr. Cody about his departure from the Police Department in Kansas City, Mo., after he was accused of making sexist and insulting comments.
Mr. Rhodes, the lawyer for The Record, said in an interview on Tuesday that the paper was not in talks to reach agreements with city officials or with the Police Department, and that it would proceed with the lawsuits it has filed against them.
“This has never been about money per se,” he said. “It’s about getting a large enough number so that the next crazed cop who thinks it would be good idea to raid a newspaper says, ‘Whoa, Nelly, I don’t think I want to do that.’”
Livia Albeck-Ripka is a Times reporter based in Los Angeles, covering breaking news, California and other subjects.
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