Kansas County Agrees to Pay $3 Million Over Police Raid of Newspaper

A county in central Kansas has agreed to pay more than $3 million and apologize for a 2023 raid on local newspaper that raised press freedom concerns and turned the small town of Marion, Kan., into a battleground over the First Amendment.

Under the terms of the agreement reached on Monday, county officials pledged to pay $1.2 million to Eric Meyer, the editor of The Marion County Record, and the estate of his mother, Joan, a former editor and associate publisher of the paper. The county also agreed to pay $300,000 to the company that publishes the paper, according to documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas.

Another $650,000 will be paid to Ruth Herbel, the city’s former vice mayor, and her husband, whose home was raided, and $900,000 will be divided among two reporters and another member of the newspaper’s staff, according to Bernie Rhodes, a lawyer for the paper.