MARION, Kan (KAKE) - Having worked in journalism for most of his life, Marion County Record publisher Eric Meyer still works day after day to get the newspaper out.
"We've got deadlines and we have to meet them," Meyer said. "We have to publish a paper every week. There is not a soul in this office who has taken a vacation since that raid."
However, one year ago, the atmosphere of the Record newsroom was very different.Â
Police raided the offices of the Record, along with the homes of Meyer and his mother Joan, and Marion Vice Mayor Ruth Herbel.
Police Chief Gideon Cody obtained a search warrant from the magistrate judge, claiming the newspaper acted illegally in obtaining documents related to the DUI record of local business owner Kari Newell.
"We're not sure that they were looking for anything, as much as they just wanted to create a splash," Meyer said. "They went around town bragging before the raid that this was going to be the largest police action in the history of Marion County."
'Seized, but not silenced' was the headline of the first edition of the Marion County Record after the raid. There are still signs of the raid in front of the Marion County Record office building, including copies of that edition, as well as a memorial to Joan Meyer, who spent six decades working for the paper.
The day after the raid, Joan Meyer died.
KAKE News spent time with her son at her gravesite in Marion, where he reflected on her life.
He said that she continued to contribute to the paper with her 'memories' column until she died at the age of 98.
"Now, the last year or so because she had some problems with her vision, I would have to write it up, type it up and then I'd read it out loud to her and she'd say, 'I don't like that one,' but she was still actively doing it work a day a week," Meyer said.
As Meyer and the Record staff continue the work of the paper, the journalism community continues to feel the shockwaves of the raid.
University of Kansas professor Stephen Wolgast began a research project after the raid, speaking to 19 journalists.
"There was shock and anger that this did happen, that the police were even at the time, it seemed pretty clear that federal law and state law was not being followed and fear, because there's a concern that it could happen to any other newsroom too."
Wolgast said that it's not only journalists who should be concerned about what Marion Police did a year ago.
"Name some other right that's in the Bill of Rights. Maybe it's the Second Amendment Right. Can they just walk in and take your rifles because they feel like you've done something illegal? Well, if that matters to your personal property and your other rights and the Bill of Rights, then you ought to be concerned about this," Wolgast said.
And now, a year later, Meyer continues to reflect on what's been called an illegal raid on his family's newspaper, and his mother's impact, that she never got to see.
"I've said a couple of times that when you're 98 years old, you're you know, there's not much longer you're going to be around you know that it's kind of rare, and I think she would really appreciate the fact that she got to go out you know, meaning something," Meyer said.
Sunday, Joan Meyer was posthumously inducted into the Kansas Press Association Hall of Fame, along with her son, Eric.Â
