Bernie Rhodes, an attorney for the newspaper, claims that no state or federal laws were broken when reporter Phyllis Zorn accessed Newell’s record through a public state website.
“Zorn had every right, under both Kansas law and U.S. law, to access Newell’s driver’s record to verify the information she had been provided by a source,” Rhodes said in an email. “She was not engaged in ‘identity theft’ or ‘unauthorized computer access’ but was doing her job.”
Eric Meyer, however, contends that these allegations were a pretext for the search and that Chief Cody’s true motivation lay in the paper’s investigation into his conduct during his tenure in the Kansas City, Missouri police force.
In response, Debbie Gruver, a reporter for the Marion County Record, filed a federal lawsuit against Chief Cody. She is accusing him of violating her constitutional rights by obtaining an “unreasonable and unlawful” search warrant and seizing her personal property at her home.
The turmoil in Marion, Kansas, serves as a stark reminder of the delicate balance between law enforcement and press freedom. A slew of court battles and lawsuits are expected as the fallout from Chief Cody’s actions will keep the town in the spotlight.
