{"id":3859,"date":"2026-08-12T23:37:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T23:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trustedmovinggroups.com\/?p=3859"},"modified":"2026-08-12T23:37:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T23:37:13","slug":"kansas-town-will-pay-850k-to-end-reporters-lawsuit-over-a-2023-raid-on-her-papers-offices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trustedmovinggroups.com\/?p=3859","title":{"rendered":"Kansas town will pay $850K to end reporter\u2019s lawsuit over a 2023 raid on her paper\u2019s offices"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

TOPEKA, Kan. \u2014 A small Kansas town has agreed to pay $850,000 to a former reporter at its weekly newspaper to end her federal lawsuit over a police raid of the paper\u2019s offices in 2023 that ignited a national furor over press freedom.<\/p>\n

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Now-retired Marion County Record reporter Phyllis Zorn said in her lawsuit that the raid violated press freedoms and protections from unreasonable law enforcement searches guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. She also said it almost immediately led to health problems, causing the return of potentially life-threatening seizures that had been controlled for years with medication.<\/p>\n

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Zorn\u2019s attorney, Randy Rathbun, and an attorney for the city of Marion, Jennifer Hill, filed a joint statement Tuesday \u2014 the third anniversary of the raid on the newspaper\u2019s offices \u2014 that Zorn\u2019s lawsuit was being dismissed. It was among the lawsuits filed in federal court against local officials over the raids of the newspaper\u2019s offices, the home of Publisher Eric Meyer and the home of a former City Council member.<\/p>\n

Rathbun did not immediately return a phone message Wednesday seeking comment. Another attorney for the city, Scott Ufford, declined to comment about the settlement but confirmed the amount.<\/p>\n

Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody said he was investigating whether the paper had committed identity theft or other crimes in accessing a local restaurant owner\u2019s state driving record, but authorities who examined the raids said they were not legally justified. Meyer, Zorn and others saw the raids as retaliation for hard-hitting local coverage and efforts to gather information about Cody\u2019s past in law enforcement.<\/p>\n

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The raids put a national spotlight on Marion, a town of about 1,900 residents about 150 miles southwest of Kansas City, and Cody later resigned. Meyer\u2019s 98-year-old-mother, also the paper\u2019s co-owner, who lived with him, died the day after the raids, and he blames stress from the raid at their home for her death.<\/p>\n

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Marion County agreed in November to pay a little more than $3 million to parties in the five lawsuits, including $600,000 to Zorn, to settle claims against its officials. While some of the remaining legal claims against the city and past and present officials have been settled or dismissed, some still remain, and a pretrial Zoom hearing is scheduled for Oct. 15.<\/p>\n

Questions about Cody\u2019s conduct after the state launched an investigation of the raid led two special prosecutors to file a felony obstruction of justice charge against him in state district court, alleging that he persuaded a witness, the local restaurant owner, to withhold information from authorities. He pleaded not guilty, and a trial set for the end of this month has been postponed.<\/p>\n

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A small Kansas town has agreed to pay $850,000 to a former reporter at its weekly newspaper to end her federal lawsuit over a police raid of the paper\u2019s offices in 2023 that ignited a national furor over press freedom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3858,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s-news"],"yoast_head":"\nKansas town will pay $850K to end reporter\u2019s lawsuit over a 2023 raid on her paper\u2019s offices - Trusted Moving Group<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/trustedmovinggroups.com\/?p=3859\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kansas town will pay $850K to end reporter\u2019s lawsuit over a 2023 raid on her paper\u2019s offices - 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