An office manager at a weekly newspaper in Kansas is the latest employee to sue over a police raid last year that sparked a firestorm. Cheri Bentz, in her suit filed in federal court, alleges that she was unlawfully detained and interrogated, and her cellphone was seized.
The Associated Press first reported this legal action follows similar lawsuits by reporter Phyllis Zorn and former reporter Deb Gruver, who had previously sued over the August 11 raid of the Marion County Record’s newsroom.
During the raid, police also searched the home of Publisher Eric Meyer, seizing equipment and personal cellphones. The then-Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody, one of the defendants in the suit, had been investigating whether the newspaper committed identity theft or other crimes related to accessing a local restaurant owner’s state driving record. Cody later resigned after body camera video of the raid showed an officer searching the desk of a reporter investigating the chief’s past.
Tragically, Meyer’s 98-year-old mother, who lived with him, passed away the day after the raid, and he attributes her death to the stress caused by it. Bentz’s lawsuit contends that she was preparing payroll when Cody and other officers entered the building with a search warrant that “unconstitutionally targeted the Record and its staff” due to their newsgathering activities.
In the months leading up to the raid, the paper had been investigating why Cody left the Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department. His move to Marion resulted in a significant pay cut, as the Kansas City police paid him nearly $116,000 a year, while the Marion job paid $60,000 annually. Bentz expressed shock during the raid, asking, “Here? What kind of search warrant?” The suit characterizes the raid as “unprecedented” and “retaliatory.”
Despite not being directly involved in reporting, Bentz was caught in the crossfire of this retaliation, leading to a reduced workload due to the significant emotional toll of the raid.
No comments:
Post a Comment