Kansas newspaper co-owner, 98, dies after being ‘stressed beyond her limits’ from police raid

The co-owner of a Kansas newspaper allegedly died as a direct results of the unprecedented police raid in opposition to the publication and its employees after they obtained damaging details about an area businesswoman — which the paper declined to publish.

Joan Meyer, 98, died after being “pressured past her limits and overwhelmed by hours of shock and grief” after police raided her and her son’s house Friday as a part of an investigation into the Marion County Report.

“She had not been capable of eat after police confirmed up on the door of her house Friday with a search warrant in hand,” The Report wrote. “Neither was she capable of sleep Friday evening.”

Joan Meyer was on the house ready for a supply from Meals on Wheels when cops knocked on the door.

“She tearfully watched throughout the raid as police not solely carted away her laptop… but in addition dug by her son Eric’s private financial institution and investments statements to {photograph} them,” the paper stated.

Eric, 69, the Report’s writer, vowed authorized retribution in opposition to the Metropolis of Marion and people concerned with the search, noting that authorized consultants contacted by the paper agreed that town had violated federal legal guidelines and his workforce’s Constitutional rights.

“Our first precedence is to have the ability to publish subsequent week,” Meyer stated, “however we additionally need to make sure that no different information group is ever uncovered to the Gestapo techniques we witnessed right now.”

Together with Meyer’s dying, the newspapers famous that one in all its reporters was injured when an officer grabbed her cellphone out of her hand.

The raid, carried out by town’s complete five-officer drive and two sheriff’s deputies, got here amid a feud between the paper and native restaurant proprietor, Kari Newell.

The Report was allegedly in possession of leaked paperwork that might have gotten Newell’s liquor license revoked, together with proof that the restaurateur had been convicted of drunk driving and continued to function a car with out a license, the Kansas Reflector reported.

The paper, nevertheless, selected to not report on the story and notified police of the scenario, believing the paperwork have been launched by somebody near Newell’s ex-husband.

The businesswoman went on to assert in a metropolis council assembly that the newspaper illegally obtained and disseminated the delicate paperwork, which is unfaithful. The paper printed a narrative on Thursday to set the document straight — after which got here Friday’s raid.

The search warrant in opposition to the Report identifies two pages price of things that legislation enforcement officers have been allowed to grab, together with laptop software program and {hardware}, digital communications, mobile networks, servers, and onerous drives, gadgets with passwords, utility information, and all paperwork and information pertaining to Newell.

The warrant particularly focused possession of computer systems able to getting used to “take part within the identification theft of Kari Newell.”

The Marion Kansas Police Division has defended its actions and claimed that federal protections didn’t prolong to the journalists as a result of they have been suspected of felony exercise.

“The sufferer [Newell] asks that we do all of the legislation permits to make sure justice is served. The Marion Kansas Police Division will [do] nothing much less,” the division stated in a press release.

John Galer, the chairperson of the Nationwide Newspaper Affiliation, condemned the raid as a relic of the previous and incompatible with the First Modification.

“Newsroom raids on this nation receded into historical past,” Galer stated in a statement. “Gathering info from newsrooms is a final resort after which performed solely with subpoenas that shield the rights of all concerned.

“For a newspaper to be intimidated by an unannounced search and seizure is unthinkable.”