3 Years After Raid, Kansas Reporter Settles Lawsuit for $850K

Phyllis Zorn will receive $850,000 from the city of Marion to settle her federal lawsuit over the August 2023 police raid on the Marion County Record.

Phyllis Zorn

Attorneys for Zorn and the city filed a motion Tuesday—exactly three years after the raid—to dismiss the case. Kansas Reflector reviewed a copy of the settlement agreement, which has not yet been entered into the court record.

Zorn previously received $600,000 from Marion County, which settled various related lawsuits for a collective $3 million last fall. Former reporter Deb Gruver settled with the city in 2024 for $235,000. 

The city has not yet settled lawsuits filed by newspaper publisher Eric Meyer and former city Councilwoman Ruth Herbel.

“I’ve always been a fairly private person,” Zorn said. “It’s been an uncomfortable situation for me to be in, where pieces of my life are out there. That took some serious getting used to.” She added: “They picked on the wrong people. I think they thought they would get away with it because they’re some nothing little town in rural Kansas. But we were a newspaper. We have access to immediately draw the attention of the whole nation.”

Kansas Reflector first reported the August 2023 raid, which drew international attention for its clear violation of press freedom. Federal and state laws prohibit such raids on journalists because of the chilling effect of allowing authorities to review source materials and block unflattering coverage.Meyer called the settlements a costly lesson for local leaders who tried to weaponize law enforcement against the newspaper. 

“They proceeded at the encouragement of elected officials to trump up bogus charges they knew to be false, lied on warrant applications, tried to persuade others who normally review such things to look the other way, ignored advice from the KBI, and proudly set out to do the biggest raid ever in the history of Marion,” he said.