After police raid at Kansas newspaper, KBI director says media is not ‘above the law’
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Kansas newspaper controversy
A police raid Friday on a local newspaper in Marion, Kansas, sparked First Amendment concerns across the country.
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After police raided a local newspaper in Marion, Kansas, igniting concerns from press freedom advocates nationally, one of the state’s top law enforcement officials appeared to defend the search.
In a statement Sunday, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation said its director, Tony Mattivi, believed the freedom of the press “is a vanguard of American democracy.” The statement also noted that members of the media are not “above the law.”
“The KBI is entrusted to investigate credible allegations of illegal activity without fear or favor,” the agency said. “In order to investigate and gather facts, the KBI commonly executes search warrants on police departments, sheriff’s offices, and at city, county and state offices. ... No one is above the law, whether a public official or a representative of the media.”
Marion, a town of fewer than 2,000 people north of Wichita, was embroiled in controversy after its entire five-officer police force, along with two sheriff’s deputies, executed a search warrant at the Marion County Record — sparking criticism from First Amendment advocates who said it violated federal law that protects journalists from searches and seizures.
The search appeared to stem from questions about how the newspaper obtained information that a local business owner, who was applying for a liquor license, had lost her driver’s license over a DUI citation in 2008.
At a City Council meeting Aug. 7, the business owner, Kari Newell, alleged her private information was “illegally obtained” by a reporter, who she said then shared the information with Councilwoman Ruth Herbel.
Eric Meyer, the publisher of the Record, said the paper did not obtain the information illegally. He said someone sent the paper the information on social media, adding that the paper did not share the information with Herbel or publish a story about it.
Herbel’s home was also searched Friday, with police seizing her cellphone and laptop. Speaking to The Star on Sunday, she called the police action “ridiculous.”
In her own statement, Newell said journalists are “not exempt from the laws they blast others for not following.” She described the Record as having a “reputation of contortion.”
Police seizures of journalists’ materials are exceptionally rare in America.
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, along with 30 news outlets and press organizations, condemned the raid and urged Marion’s police chief, Gideon Cody, to return the seized material.
Before the raid, the Record had been investigating Cody’s background with the Kansas City Police Department, where he had worked for more than 20 years before becoming chief in Marion earlier this year, Meyer said.
In its statement, the KBI said it was asked by Marion police and the Marion County attorney to join an investigation into accusations of “illegal access and dissemination of confidential criminal justice information.”
The agency assigned an agent to the case earlier this month. The statement noted that the KBI agent did not apply for the search warrants and said he was not present when they were executed.
“Without free speech and a free press, our society is not likely to see appropriate accountability of public officials,” the KBI said. “But another principle of our free society is equal application of the law.”
Video from inside the newspaper’s office, which was published by ABC News, showed officers taking photographs of the space and seizing computers Friday. Meyer has described the seizures, which also unfolded at his home, as “Gestapo tactics.”
The next day, Meyer’s mother Joan Meyer, who was also the newspaper’s co-owner, died at age 98. The stress from the “illegal raids,” the Record reported, contributed to her death.
This story was originally published August 14, 2023 at 7:50 AM.
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