Kansas cops blasted by American media for 'chilling' raid of local newspaper in violation of First Amendment

On Sunday, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, alongside over 30 other news outlets and organizations, sent a letter to the Marion County Chief of Police condemning the execution of a search warrant of a local newsroom. 

"Newsroom searches and seizures are among the most intrusive actions law enforcement can take with respect to the free press, and the most potentially suppressive of free speech by the press and the public," the letter stated.

"Based on public reporting, the search warrant that has been published online, and your public statements to the press, there appears to be no justification for the breadth and intrusiveness of the search—particularly when other investigative steps may have been available—and we are concerned that it may have violated federal law strictly limiting federal, state, and local law enforcement’s ability to conduct newsroom searches."

"We urge you to immediately return the seized material to the Record, to purge any records that may already have been accessed, and to initiate a full independent and transparent review of your department’s actions."

On August 11, law enforcement officers conducted a raid on the Marion County Record, seizing computers and raiding the home of co-owner and publisher Eric Meyer. His mother, 98-year-old Joan Meyer, who is also a co-owner of the paper and lives with her son, died after the raid on their home, reportedly being "stressed beyond her limits."

The raid occurred after police were reportedly “tipped off” that the newspaper was in possession of evidence that revealed a prominent local restaurant owner, Kari Newell, had been convicted of drunk driving but continued using her car without a license. Meyer decided not to publish an article based on the information, but instead alerted the police.

After police had received a report from Meyer, officers reportedly notified Newell about the situation, who then publicly complained about the allegations during a city council meeting, which prompted the newspaper to "set the record straight" in an article published on Thursday. Officers arrived at Meyer's house and the newspaper office on Friday and presented a search warrant alleging identity theft and unauthorized computer use.

Also noted in the letter is that the owner and publisher of the Record believed the paper was being "set up" by a nefarious actor of sorts given that the police raid came shortly after the outlet had received the aforementioned information about the alleged post-drunk driving offenses. 

The Reporters Committee said that the seizure of equipment "has substantially interfered with the Record’s First Amendment-protected newsgathering in this instance, and the department’s actions risk chilling the free flow of information in the public interest more broadly, including by dissuading sources from speaking to the Record and other Kansas news media in the future." 

The letter stated that additionally, as acknowledged in a public statement, the federal Privacy Protection Act protects the flow of information to journalists by prohibiting law enforcement, including local agencies, from searching for or seizing journalistic work product1 or documentary materials, except in narrow, exceptional circumstances."

The seizure of work products may only occur if it is necessary to prevent death or serious injury or if there is probable cause to believe that the possessor of the information has committed certain crimes.

"In short, search warrants based on the mere receipt, possession, communication, or withholding of work product material are virtually always proscribed with only limited exceptions, and the PPA’s “subpoena first” requirement for documentary material reflects the law’s design to steer law enforcement to the least intrusive investigative means with respect to newsrooms," the letter stated.

"Both help ensure that affected news organizations can negotiate the scope of a demand or challenge one that is overbroad. Applying these principles to the search your office conducted of the Record, its sweep—and the related threat to the Record’s lawful newsgathering and reporting—clearly runs counter to the intent of the statute, regardless of the asserted predication for the search."

The organization noted that the Justice Department "takes such investigative steps so seriously that the Attorney General must personally sign off before members of the department may execute a search warrant for 'the premises of a news media entity,'" adding that such a requirement is still required when prosecutors "are invoking the suspect exemption under the PPA for search warrants."

"In short, the search warrant directed at the Marion County Record was significantly overbroad, improperly intrusive, and possibly in violation of federal law," the letter stated.

They urged the police chief to "immediately" return seized equipment and records to the newspaper, "purge any such records retained by your department; and initiate a full, independent, and transparent review into your department’s actions."

Signing onto the letter were 34 news organizations, including The Associated Press, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, CBS News, The New York Times Company, Reuters News & Media Inc., and National Newspaper Association.