(DCWatchdog.com) – A shocking police raid on a local newspaper in Kansas may have led to the death of its 98-year-old co-owner as the elderly woman got “stressed beyond her limits” because of the unprecedented raid, reports reveal.
Last Friday, the police in Marion, Kansas, a town of 2,000 people, raided The Marion County Record’s office and the home of its co-owners, Joan Meyer, 98, and her son, Eric Meyer, 69, The New York Post reports.
The newspaper office raid was carried out without a required subpoena, according to The Associated Press.
The Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody claimed no warrant was needed since a journalist was suspected of wrongdoing – though he didn’t specify the nature of the alleged crime.
The bizarre police raid occurred after the local paper “obtained damaging information about a local businesswoman” – even though it didn’t publish it.
The tip claimed that Kari Newell, a local restaurant owner, had a DUI conviction. The paper ran a story on a local city council meeting during which Newell confirmed her 2008 drunk-driving conviction.
98-year-old Joan Meyer passed away after getting “stressed beyond her limits and overwhelmed by hours of shock and grief” due to the police raid, The Marion County Record wrote.
“She had not been able to eat after police showed up at the door of her home Friday with a search warrant in hand. Neither was she able to sleep Friday night,” the report added.
It informed the older woman was awaiting a Meals on Wheels delivery when police officers banged on her door.
“She tearfully watched during the raid as police not only carted away her computer… but also dug through her son Eric’s personal bank and investments statements to photograph them,” the paper pointed out.
All five cops from the local PD participated in the raid on the newspaper and the publishers’ home. They seized computers and paper files and even wrestled smartphones from the hands of the paper’s employees.
Eric Meyer has vowed to sue the police department, the City of Marion, and anyone involved in the raid. He said legal experts had declared the city had broken the Constitution and federal laws.
“We… want to make sure no other news organization is ever exposed to the Gestapo tactics we witnessed today,” Meyer said, referring to the Nazi secret police.
Kansas newspaper co-owner, 98, dies after being ‘stressed beyond her limits’ from police raid https://t.co/7PQhyawjRM pic.twitter.com/rXO0bT9w9o
— New York Post (@nypost) August 13, 2023
