A Kansas paper and its publisher are suing over police raids. They say damages exceed $10M
Source: Associated Press
A Kansas paper and its publisher are suing over police raids. They say damages exceed $10M
BY JOHN HANNA
Updated 5:27 PM EDT, April 1, 2024
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) A weekly central Kansas newspaper and its publisher filed a federal lawsuit Monday over police raids last summer of its offices and the publishers home, accusing local officials of trying to silence the paper and causing the death of the publishers 98-year-old mother.
The lawsuit did not include a specific figure for potential damages. However, in a separate notice to local officials, the paper and its publisher said they believe they are due more than $10 million.
The lawsuit from the Marion County Records parent company and Eric Meyer, its editor and publisher, accuses the city of Marion, the Marion County Commission and five current and former local officials of violating free press rights and the right to be free from unreasonable law enforcement searches guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. The lawsuit also notified the defendants that Meyer and the newspaper plan to add other claims, including that officials wrongly caused the death of Meyers mother the day after the raids, which the lawsuit attributes to a stress-induced heart attack.
The raids put Marion, a town of about 1,900 people set among rolling prairie hills about 150 miles (241 kilometers) southwest of Kansas City, Missouri, at the center of a national debate over press freedoms. It also highlighted the intense divisions over a newspaper known for its aggressive coverage of local issues and its strong criticism of some officials.
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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/kansas-newspaper-raid-federal-lawsuit-f19966b3b1a2f2f4f116000c67313d8f
brush
(53,869 posts)The paper is justified in suing the hell out of them.
It's mentioned that 4 former officers are included in the suit. Wonder if they were fired because of their part in the raid?
Whoever sent those officers apparently totally disregarded the 1st and 4th amendments because of bad blood over the paper's coverage of them.
The cops should've known better that it was a rights violation. Many cops don't, and if they do know, they don't give a shit.
Sue the hell out of all of them.
slightlv
(2,840 posts)it also encompasses the KS FBI and the stupid attorney general. Thought they're backed off the claims now, there are receipts that show they knew what was happening and did nothing to stop it. Further, the paper hadn't even printed the information it had on the female business owner... they were doing due diligence to ensure that everything had been vetted and more before they printed anything. This (no doubt) repug business woman had the chief of police by the you-know-what because of an affair she was having with him. It's a small town, where everyone knows everyone else's business. I grew up here in KS in a town just like it. This was so blatantly illegal, unconstitutional, and political and I feel so bad for the owner's son. These "officers" of the court... who didn't actually have a legal warrant... did cause the death of his 98 year old mother, who owned the paper. Just more senseless R cruelty. I hope the paper sues them as a whole and individually. And please, please please! Take Kobach down with it all! I've marched against that man so often!!! Between him, Phil Kline, and Brownback, I don't think KS will ever fully recover.