Eric Meyer, owner and publisher of the Marion County Record, speaks in more detail about last week’s police raid on his newspaper, which included seizure of ALL newspaper computers and other items.
The big new takeaway? Besides the story already printed about restaurateur Kari Newell booting Record staff out of a meeting she was having with Congressman Jake LaTurner, and beyond information provided by an anonymous source to both her and the town’s assistant mayor about a previous DUI that might, indeed, have affected her application for a special event liquor permit?
The paper had been investigating information from anonymous sources about newly hired Police Chief Gideon Cody about him possibly leaving his previous policing position rather than face fines and/or demotion over sexual misconduct issues.
That would, of course, be the same person who led and organized this raid, and who would have assisted in getting the warrant for it, and who might have known that federal law requires a subpoena in such cases — and who now claims the Privacy Protection Act’s subpoena requirement does not apply in criminal cases. Per its Facebook statement, there is a HUGE conflict of interest when the Marion PD sets itself up as judge, jury and executioner on deetermining when an alleged loophole on the Privacy Protection Act exists when its own chief is under investigation.
And, Chief Cody (no hiding behind “police department statement,” since you ARE the police department in a small town) is STILL wrong. The PPA notes that when a newspaper or other First Amendment-protected institution faces a warrant without subpoena it is STILL supposed to be given adequate opportunity to file an affidavit of objection. That CLEARLY did not happen.
This is more than just prior restraint, although that’s part of it. It’s also clearly an illegal, authoritarian attempt to uncover anonymous sources.
As a newspaper editor myself, I hope the Record’s federal lawsuit names individuals, not just the city of Marion.
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