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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.
Zorn's attorney, Randy Rathbun, and an attorney for the city
Marion, Jennifer Hill, filed a joint statement Tuesday — the
third anniversary of the raid on the newspaper's offices — that
Zorn's lawsuit was being dismissed. It was among the lawsuits
filed in federal court against local officials over the raids of
the newspaper's offices, the home of Publisher Eric Meyer and
the home of a former City Council member.
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.
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's 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's past in law enforcement.
The raids put a national spotlight on Marion, a town of about
1,900 residents about 150 miles (241 kilometers) southwest of
Kansas City, and Cody later resigned. Meyer's
98-year-old-mother, also the paper's 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.
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.
Questions about Cody's 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.
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