Kansas police are under fire after raiding a local newspaper's office and the home of its owner and publisher while seizing records and computers.
A press freedom group criticized law enforcement personnel over the incident and raised Constitutional questions. The co-owner and publisher of the paper, Eric Meyer, said that he believes the Friday raid in Marion resulted from a story published on Wednesday, which talked about a local business owner.
Kansas Police Raid Local Newspaper's Offices
However, authorities have defended the raid by arguing that it was conducted amid an investigation into what they called "identity theft" in a search warrant. Meyer also confirmed that law enforcement personnel seized computers, cell phones, and other materials during the raid at the Marion County Record.
During the raid, Meyer also noted that he was at the home of his 98-year-old mother, who lost her life less than 24 hours later. Police also took his phone, a computer router, and an old laptop that had not been used in two weeks, as per CNN.
The raid was conducted after Marion County Court Magistrate Judge Laura Viar signed a search warrant on Friday morning, which alleged that there were violations of identity theft and "unlawful acts concerning computers."
The search warrant also identified a list of items law enforcement officials were authorized to seize during their search. This included documents and records pertaining to Kari Newell, the business owner and the subject of the local newspaper's story.
Additionally, the warrant specifically targeted ownership of computers and devices or internet service accounts used to allegedly participate in Newell's identity theft. Meyer said that he was at Kari's Kitchen earlier this month, a coffee shop that Newell operates, to attend a public meeting event with U.S. Representative Jake LaTurner.
Newell had accused the newspaper of invading her privacy and illegally accessing information about her and her driving record. According to ABC News, she also suggested that the local newspaper targeted her after she decided to throw Meyer and a reporter out of a restaurant during the event.
Alleged Identity Theft
Meyer noted that while he believes Newell's complaints sparked the raids, he also suggested that the newspaper's aggressive coverage of local politics and issues could have contributed to the incident. He said they were examining Chief Gideon Cody, who led the raids, and his past work with the Kansas City, Missouri, police.
In a statement, the newspaper's co-owner claimed that this kind of aggressive move is something that someone such as Russian President Vladimir Putin is known to do. Meyer noted that this is "Gestapo tactics from World War II."
The raid is only the latest development in a series of cases where local authorities have taken aggressive actions against news organizations. Some of these have been part of a dwindling cohort left in their area to hold governments to account.
During an interview, the executive director of the Kansas Press Association said that the raid in Marion is opposite to the healthy tension between the government and newspapers in the region. She warned that the raid marks a dangerous assault on press freedom in the United States, said the New York Times.
