Court documents suggests reason for police raid of Kansas newspaper

By JIM SALTER
Associated Press

The police chief who led the raid of a Kansas newspaper has alleged in previously unreleased court documents that a reporter either impersonated someone else or lied about her intentions when she obtained the driving records of a local business owner. But reporter Phyllis Zorn, Marion County Record Editor and Publisher Eric Meyer and the newspaper’s attorney said Sunday that no laws were broken when Zorn accessed a public state website for information on restaurant operator Kari Newell. The raid carried out Aug. 11 and led by Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody brought international attention to the small central Kansas town that now finds itself at the center of a debate over press freedoms.