The Marion County District Attorney, Kahn, said Wednesday that there was insufficient evidence to support a raid on a local newspaper last week and that all devices and materials obtained during the search would be returned.
In light of the lack of evidence, he directed local law enforcement to return the seized materials, Marion County District Attorney Joel Ince said in a statement.
Police officers and county sheriff’s deputies searched the newspaper’s office, the home of its owner and editor and the city councilwoman’s home on Friday — and collected computers, cell phones and other items. It is extremely rare for law enforcement authorities in the United States to search and seize press production tools.
The searches were part of an investigation into how The Marion County Record obtained and dealt with a document containing information about a local restaurateur — and whether the restaurateur’s privacy was violated in the process. The incident put the spotlight on Marion, a town of about 2,000 people located an hour north of Wichita.
The Kansas Bureau of Investigation, an agency that assists statewide law enforcement, said in a statement that the investigation would continue.
The search drew negative response from First Amendment experts, who condemned the raid and urged local law enforcement officials to return the journalists’ equipment. On Sunday, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press sent a letter to the Marion Police Department expressing concern that the raid violated federal law. The letter was signed by more than 30 newsrooms, including The New York Times and journalism advocacy organizations.
Joanne Meyer, a co-owner of the newspaper, died Saturday, the day after the home where she lived with her son, Eric Meyer, the paper’s publisher, was raided. She was left in shock after the raid, Mr Meyer said, adding that she had trouble sleeping. Ms. Meyer, 98, refused food, and continued to ask Mrs. Meyer if anyone would put an end to the clash with the authorities. She died hard.
Mr. Meyer said the coroner concluded that the stress of the searches was a contributing factor to her death.
The Marion Police Chief defended the raid on Saturday, saying that “when the rest of the story is made public, the judicial system being questioned will be vindicated.” He declined to comment on Wednesday.
Mr. Ince, the district attorney, was in court on Wednesday and was not available for comment.
The search at the newspaper’s office came less than a week after Carrie Newell, a local restaurateur, accused The Record of illegally obtaining a government record about steps to get her driver’s license back and then sharing it with the city councilwoman.
Mr Meyer has said since the raid that he and his newspaper, which had not published anything about the document it obtained, had done nothing wrong and that the newspaper had not shared the document with the council member.
Mr. Meyer, 69, has had a long career in journalism, having served as a reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and a professor at the University of Illinois. The Record, with a staff of seven and a circulation of about 4,000, is known for its fiery editorials about local officials and aggressive, off-the-cuff reporting for a newspaper of its size. But it’s also a small-town newspaper with small-town concerns: The lead story last week was about a 10-year-old learning to play guitar at a local senior center.
On Wednesday, in an interview at The Record’s office, he said he was acquitted by the district attorney’s decision, adding that he was grateful to have the newspaper’s equipment back. He criticized the district attorney and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation for issuing statements about the decision before he was told.
He proudly held up a hard copy of this week’s issue, which the staff stayed up late at night to produce due to missing hardware. “SEIZED… BUT NOT SILENT” reads the top heading in 200-point font.
“You can’t let the bully win,” said Mr. Meyer, “and eventually the bully will go so far that it becomes so terrible for others to come and support you.”
Bernard J. Rhodes, the attorney representing The Record, called the county’s decision to withdraw the search warrant and return the seized items a “promising first step.”
He added, “However, it does nothing to reimburse the newspaper for violating its First Amendment rights in conducting the research and, very sadly, does not return Joan Mayer.”
Mr. Meyer said the last 24 hours of his mother’s life were harrowing, but she would have enjoyed the support The Record has received — 2,000 more people have signed up for the paper in just the past few days — amid her ongoing feud with law enforcement agencies.
“She would have liked to be seen almost as a martyr for the cause,” he said.