Justice, it seems, some days is served.
In a dramatic move unforeseen by many, county officials have agreed to pay more than $3 million to settle their part of a federal-court lawsuit brought by The Marion County Record and others after a surprise police raid on homes and the paper.
As part of the settlement, the Kansas county, its sheriff and officials agreed to publish a formal apology to the newspaper, its owners, Eric Meyer and his mother, the late Joan Meyer, and a City Council member and her husband.
The settlement also includes two reporters with the newspaper during the raid, conducted Aug. 11, 2023, at the newspaper; at the home shared by the Meyers and his mother; and the home of former Vice Mayor Ruth Herbel and her husband Ron.
The lawsuit remains pending against the City of Marion, former Mayor David Mayfield, former Police Chief Gideon Cody and former officer Zach Hudlin, in federal district court for the District of Kansas, the “read bad guys” of the raid, one lawyer called them.
The payments include:
• $200,000 personally to Eric Meyer, whose cellphone and two computers were seized, his house and desk searched.
• $250,000 to former reporter Deb Gruver, who left town after the raid citing stress.
• $300,000 to the Record, which had its operations disrupted, and three computers and a file server unlawfully seized.
• $600,000 to reporter Phyllis Zorn, who saw her cellphone seized and suffered aggravation of a previous medical disorder. She quit the paper after the settlement, citing continued stress working in the county.
• $650,000 to Herbel and her husband, whose dementia was aggravated by the raid on his home.
• $1 million to the estate of Joan Meyer, who suffered a fatal cardiac arrest the day after the raid. Video showed it greatly aggravated her. At one point, she shouted: “Get out of my house.”
• Earlier, a $50,000 settlement was paid to the newspaper’s business manger, who suffered aggravation of health problems.
Meyer and his lawyers considered the apology a key part of the settlement. Out-of-court settlements generally involve a statement that the defendants do not admit doing anything wrong.
It reads, “The Sheriff’s Office wishes to express its sincere regrets to Eric and Joan Meyer and Ruth and Ronald Herbel for its participation in the drafting and execution of the Marion Police Department’s search warrants on their homes and The Marion County Record. This likely would not have happened if established law had been reviewed and applied prior to the execution of the warrants.”
One thing the paper thought was important was that the statement made clear that state and federal laws restrict attempts to search newspapers and other media.
The Record reported that the county’s insurance will cover $3 million of the settlement, leaving $50,000 to be paid from county funds. Meyer said he had no wish to see the county broke, but was glad the commissioners will have to come up with money from their budget, in addition to legal fees. The settlements cover part of the plaintiffs’ legal fees.
“Every police officer should know that they can’t punish someone for their political speech,” the Herbels’ lawyer, Jared McClain of the Institute for Justice, told the Record, “and every police officer should know that they need probable cause to enter someone’s home and search their phone and computer.
“Yet the … sheriff’s office helped draft bogus warrants designed to retaliate against Ruth Herbel for her work as vice mayor. What they put Ruth and Ronald through is inexcusable.”
Cody, who allegedly left his previous job as a captain with the Kansas City, Missouri, police department just ahead of an investigation, was suspended and later resigned after it came out that he had tried to cover up messages he exchanged with Kari Newell, a Marion restaurant owner who was the alleged victim in the “case” police were working.
The ex-chief was charged this fall with interfering with judicial process. Last seen, he reportedly had become a mail carrier in a western state, but he faces a state court trial in Kansas on Feb. 2.
At this point, no one expects the city to give in for its part in the case.
“Everybody involved in this is 100 percent convinced we are going to go to trial with the city,” Meyer told the Kansas Recorder. “This will make that easier in some regard.”
Steve Haynes is the former president of Nor’West Newspapers in Oberlin. He was president of both the Kansas Press Association and National Newspaper Association, and is a member of the Kansas Newspaper Hall of Fame.
