The chief of a Kansas police department that recently raided a local newspaper alleged that a reporter lied or misrepresented herself when accessing documents, according to court records.
The Marion County Record raid, which drew national attention, was led by Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody on Aug. 11. Cody alleged that a reporter lied about her intentions or impersonated someone else when she was gathering the driving records of local restaurant owner Kari Newell.
Reporter Phyllis Zorn had accessed a public website when gathering information about Newell. Zorn had used Newell's name in the search, and police said it was identity theft to do so. A source had also given the paper Newell's date of birth and license number unsolicited.
"Downloading the document involved either impersonating the victim or lying about the reasons why the record was being sought," Cody said.
The raid caused outrage and sparked a debate about press freedoms as the newspaper's employees were hindered from doing their job and were forced to work overnight to print the next day's paper. During the raid, authorities took the newspaper's computers and a router plus the personal cellphones of employees.
A central Kansas police chief was not only on legally shaky ground when he ordered the raid of a weekly newspaper, experts say, but it may have been a criminal violation of civil rights. https://t.co/1wl7Xnn1p5
— ABC News (@ABC) August 20, 2023
All the seized items were handed back to the newspaper Wednesday after Marion County Attorney Joel Ensey determined there was too little evidence to justify the raid.
Marion County Record Editor and Publisher Eric Meyer told the Associated Press that no laws were broken.
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