A weekly central Kansas newspaper and its publisher filed a federal lawsuit Monday over police raids last summer of its offices and the publisher’s home, accusing local officials of trying to silence the paper and causing the death of the publisher’s 98-year-old mother.
The lawsuit did not include a specific figure for potential damages. However, in a separate notice to local officials, the paper and its publisher said they believe they are due more than $10 million.
The lawsuit from the Marion County Record’s parent company and Eric Meyer, its editor and publisher, accuses the city of Marion, the Marion County Commission and five current and former local officials of violating free press rights and the right to be free from unreasonable law enforcement searches guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. The lawsuit also notified the defendants that Meyer and the newspaper plan to add other claims, including that officials wrongly caused the death of Meyer’s mother the day after the raids, which the lawsuit attributes to a stress-induced heart attack.
Let me know what you find, but I’m guessing it will be necessary in order to sidestep sovereign immunity.
Mostly it seems to be because they’re making a federal civil rights complaint. Gross negligence and civil rights complaints tend to defeat immunity, though I don’t know if that’ll be successful against the city itself.
If they can prove malice on the city’s part, immunity goes out the window. And they may be able to do that.
Gotcha. Looked through some of the complaint. It’s a doozy.