TOPEKA — The Kansas Commission on Judicial Conduct has dismissed a complaint against magistrate Laura Viar for signing a search warrant that allowed police to raid the Marion County Record.
The search warrant appeared to violate federal law protecting journalists from police raids, and was based on the pretense that a journalist committed a crime by accessing public records in an online database.
Topeka resident Keri Strahler on Aug. 16 filed a formal complaint with the judicial panel, which has the authority to investigate allegations of misconduct. Her complaint noted legal protections for journalists and a prosecutor’s finding that the evidence in the case didn’t support the search warrants.
District Judge Bradley Ambrosier, vice president of the panel that considered the complaint, notified Strahler of the commission’s decision in a letter dated Wednesday. The letter, obtained by Kansas Reflector, says the commission dismissed the complaint after meeting behind closed doors Nov. 8.
In the letter, Ambrosier said the “facts and circumstances were not sufficient to conclude the issuance of the warrant crossed the line of incompetence.”
“This is not to say that the commission agrees that the issuance of the search warrant in this instance was reasonable or legally appropriate,” Ambrosier wrote in the letter. “The commission … issued informal advice to Judge Viar to take sufficient time to review all documents and research appropriate federal and state laws before issuing a search warrant.”
Two members of the commission, Allen Glendenning, an attorney, and Susan Lynn, a newspaper publisher, recused themselves from the hearing.
