$235,000 Settlement Is Reached in Police Raid of a Kansas Newspaper

Almost one year after the authorities raided The Marion County Record, a Kansas weekly newspaper, a former reporter has reached a $235,000 settlement as part of a lawsuit she filed over the search, which set off a national discussion about press freedoms.

The settlement, dated June 25, brought an end to a lawsuit filed by the former reporter, Deb Gruver, against Gideon Cody, who resigned as the Marion city police chief in October in the face of mounting pressure.

Ms. Gruver’s lawsuit claimed that Mr. Cody had caused injury to her hand while forcibly obtaining her personal cellphone during the raid. Body-camera footage corroborated Ms. Gruver’s account, according to Eric Meyer, the newspaper’s publisher.

Mr. Meyer said on Saturday thatbody-camera audio recorded Mr. Cody “saying that it just made his day.”

Ms. Gruver, who left the newspaper last fall, said in a letter to the editor that she “no longer wanted to work in a town where the majority of ‘leaders’ clearly don’t respect the Fourth Estate or the U.S. Constitution,” The Record reported.

On Aug. 11, 2023, local police and county sheriff’s deputies raided the office of The Record and the homes of a councilwoman and Mr. Meyer. The raid at the newsroom sparked outrage and a nationwide debate over First Amendment rights.