A Kansas county agrees to pay out $3 million and apologize for a raid on a small-town newspaper

By Cindy Von Quednow, CNN

(CNN) — A county in Kansas has agreed to pay more than $3 million and apologize for a 2023 raid on a small-town newspaper.

Monday’s agreement stems from the August 2023 search of the Marion County Record, as well as the home of the paper’s publisher and a councilwoman, seizing reporters’ cell phones and computers, among other items. The raid triggered widespread condemnation from news organizations and press freedom advocates.

Marion Police Department Chief Gideon Cody at the time suggested the raids were based on the belief that a reporter unlawfully obtained the driving records of a local restaurant owner before the newspaper published a story about her, according to unredacted affidavits obtained by CNN.

The chief later resigned and was charged with interfering with the judicial process for actions he took after the raid.

Marion County was among multiple defendants in five federal lawsuits that were filed by the company that publishes the newspaper; the newspaper’s editor and publisher, Eric Meyer; the estate of Joan Meyer, his late mother who was the paper’s co-owner; employees of the newspaper; and the councilmember, the Associated Press reported.

The dollar amount that was rewarded is symbolic, Eric Meyer told CNN Tuesday. What was more important, he said, was the apology that was part of the negotiations.

“The important thing, and what we held out for, is that there was an admission that wrong was done,” Meyer said. “The county itself didn’t specifically say it did wrongdoing, but it said it was wrong to have done the raids, and it apologized, and that was more important than the money.”

The newspaper attorney’s Bernie Rhodes​​​​ said the lawsuit was not about money. “This was about an amount of money that would deter the next crazed cop who thought it would be a good idea to raid a newsroom.”

The publisher’s 98-year-old mother, who was the co-owner of the Marion County Record, died a day after police raided the home she shared with her son. Eric Meyer said he believes stress from the raid contributed to her death.

“The Sheriff’s Office wishes to express its sincere regrets to Eric and Joan Meyer and Ruth and Ronald Herbel for its participation in the drafting and execution of the Marion Police Department’s search warrants on their homes and the Marion County Record. This likely would not have happened if established law had been reviewed and applied prior to the execution of the warrants,” the statement from the Marion County Sheriff’s Office reads, according to the agreement.

CNN has reached out to the county attorney and the sheriff’s office for comment.

A lawsuit against the city of Marion is still pending, Meyer said. Rhodes said he expects that suit to go to trial.

“The most important consequence was that, you know, if you act like a bully, you try to weaponize the criminal justice system against the press, there’s going to be a price to pay, and that price is now measured in millions,” Meyer said. “This is just the first shoe of two shoes to fall. This is the county portion of it. The city was the main instigator of this raid.”

Meyer noted that press freedoms are still under attack across the country and more needs to be done to stop incidents like this from happening elsewhere.

“This is kind of a part of the system these days where the Justice Department is weaponized against political enemies, where laws are stretched to their breaking point, where … if you want to enforce some law, you can go out and do whatever you want unless somebody challenges it in court. Well, guess what? Somebody did challenge it in court, and we won,” Meyer said.

The agreement means Joan Meyer’s death was not in vain, Rhodes said.

“Her death prompted this rallying cry by press organizations across the world, not just the United States, but across the world, that it’s time to stand up to these bullying techniques,” the attorney said.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.