One of the reporters who works at the small Kansas newspaper that was raided by authorities earlier this month filed a federal lawsuit against the police chief Wednesday.

Deb Gruver believes Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody violated her constitutional rights when he abruptly snatched her personal cellphone out of her hands during a search where officers also seized computers from the Marion County Record’s office, according to the lawsuit. That Aug. 11 search and two others conducted at the homes of the newspaper’s publisher and a City Council member have thrust the town into the center of a debate over the press protections in the First Amendment.

  • SulaymanF@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Hope the newspaper winds up owning the entire town and police department when this is all over.

    • pandarang@kbin.social
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      10 months ago

      Totally agree, they need to be taught a lesson. I hope the PD goes down hard.

      OCP Marion County Record owns the cops!”

  • ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    This is great to see. I genuinely hope she prevails and gets every penny the law allows.

    That said, goddamn that is some small-town arrogance: the cop, the magistrate, and the restaurant owner. Makes me wonder how much shit they’ve been getting away with over the years that no one knows about.

    But what I find really funny is that now any secret those three ever even thought about having, they may well wake up to seeing in an international headline one morning, because I don’t think there is any reporter left anywhere in the world now that wouldn’t publish it just for the vengeance.

    RIP Joan Meyer.

    • dhtseany@lemmy.ml
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      10 months ago

      I work with local governments for my job and the part that keeps not getting talked about is the part where they raided the home of a local city council member… The ones who vote on his employment and can remove him as they wish… That police chief needs to be thrown in jail.

    • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Makes me wonder how much shit they’ve been getting away with over the years that no one knows about.

      Hopefully the courts will turn that criminal organization upside down and inside out.

  • roguetrick@kbin.social
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    10 months ago

    Oh that fascist did it personally. Now that is something. Usually they want to create a level of abstraction. He both wrote the affidavit and assaulted the reporters.