TOPEKA — The Marion County Record has filed a federal First Amendment lawsuit against local authorities who planned and carried out the raid last year of the newspaper office and publishers’ home, accusing the “co-conspirators” of seeking revenge for unfavorable news coverage through falsified and invalid search warrants.
According to a 137-page complaint filed Monday, former Mayor David Mayfield ordered the takedown of the newspaper and a political rival after identifying journalists as “the real villains in America.”
The lawsuit claims defendants violated the First Amendment freedom of the press, the Fourth Amendment prohibition on warrantless searches, and federal and state laws that protect journalists — and their sources — from police raids. The lawsuit doesn’t specify the damages being sought for those claims.
“The last thing we want is to bankrupt the city or county, but we have a duty to democracy and to countless news organizations and citizens nationwide to challenge such malicious and wanton violations of the First and Fourth Amendments and federal laws limiting newsroom searches,” said Marion County Record publisher and editor Eric Meyer. “If we prevail, we anticipate donating any punitive damages to community projects and causes supporting cherished traditions of freedom.”
Marion, population of 1,900, is so small it doesn’t have a single traffic light.
Mayfield, former Marion police Chief Gideon Cody, acting police Chief Zach Hudlin, Marion County Sheriff Jeff Soyez and sheriff’s Detective Aaron Christner are defendants in the lawsuit, personally and in their official capacity. The city council and county commission also are defendants.
The newspaper provided notice in federal court documents that it intends to add claims to the lawsuit, including one for the wrongful death of Eric’s 98-year-old mother, Joan Meyer, who died 24 hours after police raided her home. The additional claims would seek damages in excess of $5 million for Eric Meyer, his mother’s estate, and the newspaper.
The federal lawsuit says Eric Meyer seeks justice “to deter the next crazed cop from threatening democracy the way Chief Cody did when he hauled away the newspaper’s computers and its reporters’ cell phones in an ill-fated attempt to silence the press.”
Mayfield, a former Kansas Highway Patrol trooper and Marion police chief who works part-time for the sheriff, wanted to punish Eric Meyer and Councilwoman Ruth Herbel for their criticism of his actions as mayor, according to the lawsuit. In editorials, Eric Meyer referred to Mayfield as a dictator, bully and liar. Mayfield had tried and failed to remove Herbel from the city council through a recall petition in January 2023.
Jami Mayfield, the mayor’s wife, wrote on her personal Facebook page that the recall petition was part of an effort to “silence” the newspaper for publishing “way more information than was necessary” about the mayor.
On July 25, just 17 days before the raid, David Mayfield wrote on his personal Facebook page: “The real villains in America aren’t Black people. They aren’t white people. They aren’t Asians. They aren’t Latinos. They aren’t women. They aren’t gays.”
“They are the radical ‘journalists,’ ‘teachers’ & ‘professors’ who do nothing but sow division between the American people,” David Mayfield wrote.
In August, Herbel and newspaper reporter Phyllis Zorn received a tip that Kari Newell, who owns a coffee shop and upscale restaurant in Marion, had been driving for years on a suspended license because of a drunk-driving citation. Based on the information, Herbel questioned Newell’s request for a liquor license.
Zorn verified the information, which is a public record, through the Kansas Department of Revenue’s online driver’s license status check tool.
Eric Meyer decided not to publish a story about Newell, but he notified the police chief and sheriff that he was investigating a claim that local law enforcement had allowed Newell to drive without a license.
