The first federal lawsuit has been filed in relation to the Marion Police Department raid on the Marion County Record in mid-August.
Reporter Deb Gruver has filed against Police Chief Gideon Cody, alleging violations of First Amendment rights to free press and Fourth Amendment rights against unlawful search and seizure. Gruver says Cody presented her a copy of the warrant used to support the search and took her cell phone out of her hand as she was trying to contact newspaper publisher Eric Meyer.
The search, approved by Magistrate Judge Laura Viar, also led to the seizure of newspaper records and computers.
Gruver says the raid was approved under the pretense that fellow reporter Phyllis Zorn was guilty of identity theft when she researched public records on a public website as part of an investigation into a Marion business owner who had lost her driver’s license due to a DUI conviction 15 years ago — but the real motivation, in part, was her investigation into allegations of Cody’s misconduct while a member of the Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department, including sexist comments and driving over a body at a crime scene.
Gruver is seeking at least $75,000 in damages. Cody has not commented.
The attorney representing the Record has already demanded the destruction of evidence copied from newspaper computers, a step the Marion County Sheriff’s Office has agreed to take, after concerns the evidence list from the Aug. 11 raid was altered and illegally held.
