Nearly a year after authorities searched the Marion County Record, a Kansas weekly newspaper, a former reporter has won a $235,000 settlement in a lawsuit he filed over the raid that sparked a national debate about press freedom.
The June 25 settlement brings to an end a lawsuit filed by former reporter Deb Gruber against Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody, who resigned in October in the face of mounting pressure.
Gruber's lawsuit alleges that Cody injured her hand while forcibly taking her cellphone during a search of her home, a claim that the body camera footage backs up, according to The Paper's publisher, Eric Meyer.
Meyer said Saturday. Body camera audio recorded Cody saying, “Today was a great day.”
“I no longer want to work in a town where the majority of its 'leaders' clearly do not respect the Fourth Estate or the U.S. Constitution,” Gruber, who retired from the paper last fall, wrote in a letter to the editor, according to the Record.
On August 11, 2023, local police and county sheriff's deputies searched The Record's offices and the homes of city council members and Meyer. The raid on the editing room sparked outrage and a national debate over First Amendment rights.
A search warrant was issued about an hour before the raid, and officers searched the newsroom, opening drawers and taking computers, cellphones and other materials from the Record's offices. Seven officers spent more than two hours at Meyer's home, where his mother was present at the time, he said.
Authorities said the search was part of an investigation into how the newspaper obtained documents containing information about steps a local restaurateur took to have his driver's license reinstated, which authorities said could constitute a crime such as identity theft.
The story, which contains government records, has not been made public, and the Record said it obtained the documents from a confidential source.
Less than a week after the search, Marion County Chief Prosecutor Joel Ensey ordered authorities to return the seized equipment, saying there was insufficient evidence to justify the search.
Two days after the raid, the publisher's mother, Joan Meyer, 98, a co-owner of the newspaper, died, partly from the emotional toll of the raid on her home, Meyer said.
The search also came days after The Record asked questions about Cody's retirement from the Kansas City Police Department following accusations that he made sexist and derogatory comments.
Gruber “was the reporter who had the first information about the police chief that we did not make public at the time,” Meyer said. “That information was in her desk and her desk was searched during the investigation.”
Other parts of her lawsuit against Sheriff Jeff Soyez and Ency are still pending, as are lawsuits filed by four other employees of the newspaper.
The settlement in Gruber's case will be paid by the city's insurance company. City officials and Cody could not immediately be reached for comment Saturday.
One of the lawsuits filed by Mayer was brought on behalf of the newspaper's parent company and Mayer's estate, and it accuses local authorities of trying to silence the paper and alleges that the attack contributed to Mayer's death.
“One of the things we've seen through this is the people who have responded to us are coming from across the political spectrum,” Meyer said. “There's not a lot of Democrat-Republican unity in the world right now.”
