MARION, Kan. — Newly launched video exhibits the 98-year-old mom of a Kansas newspaper writer confronting law enforcement officials as they searched her house in a raid that has drawn nationwide scrutiny, at one level demanding: “Get out of my house!”

Video launched by the newspaper Monday exhibits Joan Meyer shouting on the six officers contained in the Marion, Kansas, house she shared along with her son, Marion County Record Editor and Publisher Eric Meyer. Standing with assistance from a walker and wearing an extended gown or robe and slippers, she appears visibly upset.

“Get out of my house … I don’t want you in my house!” she stated at one level. “Don’t touch any of that stuff! This is my house!” she stated at one other.

The raids of the newspaper and the houses of the Meyers and a City Council member occurred on Aug. 11, after an area restaurant proprietor accused the newspaper of illegally accessing details about her. Joan Meyer died a day later. Her son stated he believes that the stress contributed to her demise.

A prosecutor stated later that there was inadequate proof to justify the raids, and a few of the seized computer systems and cellphones have been returned. Meanwhile, the preliminary on-line search of a state web site that the police chief cited to justify the raid was authorized, a spokesperson for the company that maintains the positioning stated Monday.

The raid on the Record put it and its hometown of about 1,900 residents within the middle of a debate about press freedoms protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Kansas’ Bill of Rights. It additionally uncovered divisions within the city over native politics and the newspaper’s protection of the group, and put an intense highlight on Police Chief Gideon Cody, who led the raids after the newspaper had requested questions on his background.

PHOTOS: 'Get out of my home!' Video exhibits 98-year-old mom of Kansas newspaper writer upset amid raid

“As far as Chief Cody goes, he can take his high horse he brought into this community and giddy-up on out of town,” Darvin Markley, a Marion resident, stated throughout a Monday afternoon City Council assembly. “The man needs to go. He needs to be fired.”

Cody didn't attend Monday’s assembly or reply to e-mail and cellphone messages looking for remark. He stated in affidavits used to acquire the warrants that he had possible trigger to imagine that the newspaper and City Council member Ruth Herbel, whose house was additionally raided, had violated state legal guidelines in opposition to id theft or pc crimes.

Both Herbel and the newspaper have stated they acquired a replica of a doc concerning the standing of the restaurant proprietor’s license with out soliciting it. The doc disclosed the girl’s license quantity and date of beginning, that are required to verify the standing of an individual’s license on-line and acquire entry to a extra full driving file. The police chief maintains they broke state legal guidelines to try this, whereas the newspaper and Herbel’s attorneys say they didn’t.

Herbel, town’s vice mayor, presided over the City Council’s assembly Monday, its first for the reason that raids. It lasted lower than an hour, and Herbel introduced that council members wouldn't talk about the raids - one thing its agenda already had stated in an all-caps assertion in purple adopted by 47 exclamation factors. She stated the council will tackle the raids in a future assembly.

While Herbel stated after the assembly that she agrees that Cody ought to resign, different City Council members declined to remark. Mike Powers, a retired district court docket decide who's the one candidate for mayor this fall, stated it’s untimely to make any judgments.

The assembly got here after Kansas Department of Revenue spokesperson Zack Denney stated it’s authorized to entry the motive force’s license database on-line to verify the standing of an individual’s license utilizing info obtained independently. The division’s Division of Vehicles points licenses.

“The website is public-facing, and anyone can use it,” he stated.

Meyer stated the newspaper plans to file a lawsuit over the raid of its places of work and his house.

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation continues to look at the newspaper’s actions. The KBI studies to state Attorney General Kris Kobach, a Republican, whereas the Department of Revenue is below Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s authority.

Legal specialists imagine the police raid on the newspaper violated a federal privateness regulation or a state regulation shielding journalists from having to establish sources or flip over unpublished materials to regulation enforcement.

Meyer has famous that among the many objects seized had been a pc tower and private cellphone of a reporter who was uninvolved within the dispute with the native restaurant proprietor - however who had been investigating why Cody left a Kansas City, Missouri, police captain’s job in April earlier than turning into Marion police chief.

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