A Kansas paper and its publisher are suing over police raids. They say damages exceed $10M
raids last summer of its offices and the publisher's home, accusing local officials of trying to silence the paper and causing the death of the publisher's 98-year-old mother. The lawsuit did not include a specific figure for potential damages. However, in a separate notice to local officials, the paper and its publisher said they believe they are due more than $10 million.
The lawsuit from the Marion County Record's parent company and Eric Meyer, its editor and publisher, accuses the city of Marion, the Marion County Commission and five current and former local officials of violating free press rights and the right to be free from unreasonable law enforcement searches guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. The lawsuit also notified the defendants that Meyer and the newspaper plan to add other claims, including that officials wrongly caused the death of Meyer's mother the day after the raids, which the lawsuit attributes to a stress-induced heart attack.
The raids put Marion, a town of about 1,900 people set among rolling prairie hills about 150 miles (241 kilometers) southwest of Kansas City, Missouri, at the center of a national debate over press freedoms. It also highlighted the intense divisions over a newspaper known for its aggressive coverage of local issues and its strong criticism of some officials. The city's former police chief — who later resigned amid the ongoing furor — justified the Aug.
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