The police leader who led the raid of a Kansas newspaper alleged in up to now unreleased in court docket documents {that a} reporter both impersonated any person else or lied about her intentions when she acquired the using information of an area industry proprietor.
But reporter Phyllis Zorn, Marion County Record Editor and Publisher Eric Meyer and the newspaper’s legal professional mentioned Sunday that no rules had been damaged when Zorn accessed a public state web page for information on eating place operator Kari Newell.
The raid performed Aug. 11 and led by way of Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody introduced global consideration to the small central Kansas the city that now unearths itself on the heart of a debate over press freedoms. Police seized computer systems, private mobile phones and a router from the newspaper, however all pieces had been launched Wednesday after the county prosecutor concluded there wasn’t sufficient proof to justify the motion.
Late Saturday, the Record’s legal professional, Bernie Rhodes, supplied copies of the affidavits used within the raid to The Associated Press and different news media. The documents that had up to now now not been launched. They confirmed that Zorn’s acquiring of Newell’s using document was once the motive force in the back of the raid.
The newspaper, performing on a tip, checked the general public web page of the Kansas Department of Revenue for the standing of Newell’s motive force’s license because it associated with a 2008 conviction for inebriated using.
Cody wrote within the affidavit that the Department or Revenue instructed him that those that downloaded the information had been Record reporter Phyllis Zorn and any person the usage of the identify “Kari Newell.” Cody wrote that he contacted Newell who mentioned “someone obviously stole her identity.”
As a consequence, Cody wrote: “Downloading the document involved either impersonating the victim or lying about the reasons why the record was being sought.”
The license records are normally confidential under state law, but can be accessed under certain circumstances, cited in the affidavit. The online user can request their own records but must provide a driver’s license number and date of birth.
The records may also be provided in other instances, such as to lawyers for use in a legal matter; for insurance claim investigations; and for research projects about statistical reports with the caveat that the personal information won’t be disclosed.
Meyer said Zorn actually contacted the Department of Revenue before her online search and was instructed how to search records. Zorn, asked to respond to the allegations that she used Newell’s name to obtain Newell’s personal information, said, “My response is I went to a Kansas Department of Revenue website and that’s where I got the information.”
She added, “Not to my knowledge was anything illegal or wrong.”
Rhodes, the newspaper’s attorney, said Zorn’s actions were legal under both state and federal laws. Using the subject’s name “is not identity theft,” Rhodes said. “That’s simply the best way of getting access to that individual’s document.”
The newspaper had Newell’s motive force’s license quantity and date of beginning as a result of a supply supplied it, unsolicited, Meyer mentioned. Ultimately, the Record made up our minds to not write about Newell’s document. But when she printed at a next City Council assembly that she had pushed whilst her license was once suspended, that was once reported.
The investigation into whether or not the newspaper broke state rules continues, now led by way of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. State Attorney General Kris Kobach has mentioned he doesn’t see the KBI’s function as investigating the behavior of the police.
Some felony professionals imagine the Aug. 11 raid violated a federal privateness regulation that protects newshounds from having their newsrooms searched. Some additionally imagine it violated a Kansas regulation that makes it harder to drive journalists and editors to divulge their resources or unpublished subject material.
Cody has now not replied to a number of requests for remark, together with an e-mail request on Sunday. He defended the raid in a Facebook post quickly after it came about, announcing the federal regulation shielding newshounds from newsroom searches makes an exception particularly for “when there is reason to believe the journalist is taking part in the underlying wrongdoing.”
The Record gained an outpouring of beef up from different news organizations and media teams after the raid. Meyer mentioned it has picked up a minimum of 4,000 further subscribers, sufficient to double the scale of its press run, even though many of the brand new subscriptions are virtual.
Meyer blamed the tension from the raid for the Aug. 12 loss of life of his 98-year-old mom, Joan Meyer, the paper’s co-owner. Her funeral services and products had been Saturday.
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Salter reported from O’Fallon, Missouri.
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