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Kansas newspaper co-owner swore at police during raid: "You're an a--hole"

By
Michael Roppolo
Social Media Associate Producer
Michael Roppolo is a social media associate producer for CBS News. He covers a wide variety of topics, including science, technology, crime, justice and disability rights.
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Michael Roppolo

/ CBS News

Newly released security footage shows what happened the day authorities raided the home of 98-year-old Joan Meyer, the co-owner of a small Kansas newspaper. She is seen in the video confronting the officers, trying to get the officers to cease the search while yelling profanities. 

"Get out of my house," Meyer is heard yelling at officers.

Meyer collapsed and died one day later. The Marion County Record  that the coroner "lists the anger and anxiety [Meyer] experienced as a contributing cause of her death." 

The video clip, released by the paper, starts an hour and a half after the police entered and ends when police allegedly disconnected Meyer's internet connection. An angry Meyer is seen with a walker, following officers around the home she shared with her son, newspaper publisher Eric Meyer. 

At one point during the search, she challenged an officer.

"Does your mother love you?" Meyer asked. "You're an a--hole."

The search, which also targeted the Marion County Record newsroom, drew swift criticism. News organizations, including CBS News, condemned the raid in a letter sent by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press to Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody. 

Kansas newspaper, publisher's home raided by local police 04:47

The federal  protects journalists and newsrooms from most searches by law enforcement, requiring police usually to issue subpoenas rather than search warrants. 

Three affidavits used as the basis for the police raid were not filed until three days after the search warrants were executed, records provided by the paper's attorneys show. They were signed on the day of the raids by Cody, but they were not filed until Aug. 14. 

Her son later called the raid a "Gestapo tactic." 

Police took Meyer's computer and a router used by an Alexa smart speaker during the raid at her home, according to the paper. Officers at the Record's office seized personal cellphones, computers, the newspaper's file server and other equipment. Some items were eventually turned over to the paper's attorney and are in the process of being returned, the paper reported. 

As of Tuesday, four computers, two hard drives and a router still had not been returned, according to the Record.

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