The event is free and open to the public. It is sponsored by the Ozark Press Association, KSMU Ozarks Public Radio at Missouri State University, and the Springfield Daily Citizen.
At the time of the raid, Meyer was living with his 98-year-old mother.
Meyer and his parents had bought the small weekly paper in 1998. Meyer, 73, had spent 20 years as an editor at the Milwaukee Journal followed by 26 years as a journalism instructor and professor at the University of Illinois.
The raids were on Friday, Aug. 11, 2023. As many as seven police officers were at the home of Meyer and his mother for 2½ hours.
Joan Meyer, who used a walker, was alone with police for most of that time because Meyer had left the house and hustled over to the newsroom. In video recordings taken inside the home by the Meyers' security system Joan Meyer can be heard saying:
"You get the hell out of my house!"
"Come here, I can't hear you."
"Those are personal papers."
"Boy, are you going to be in trouble."
Joan Meyer died of cardiac arrest the next day, several hours after the raid.
So far, city and county have paid over $4 million to settle lawsuits
The raids drew national attention and were considered by many to be an egregious attack on press freedom in America. The paper; its reporters; Meyer; and Ruth Herbel, the Marion City Council member, were quickly vindicated.
The materials seized were returned within days; Police Chief Gideon Cody resigned two months later; and the paper, its reporters and Herbel sued both the city and county.
No charges were ever filed — other than a criminal charge against Cody for telling the complainant behind the search warrants, the owner of a local cafe, to delete text messages she had exchanged with the police chief.
Reporter Phyllis Zorn, who has since left the newspaper, received a settlement of $850,000 from the city of Marion. She had settled with Marion County for $600,000. She had sued in federal court alleging violations of her First and 14th amendments and the federal Privacy Protection Act.
Reporter Deb Gruver, who has since left the newspaper, settled with the city for $235,000 and the county for $485,000.
Office manager Cheri Bentz, who has since left the newspaper, settled with the city for $160,000 and with the county for $50,000.
There have been additional lawsuits and additional settlements. The total payouts thus far from the city and county — with lawsuits remaining — is $4.304 million.
During legal proceedings, Meyer has said, he discovered that one police officer stood outside his home and never entered. The officer believed what was happening was illegal.
Outpouring of support after the raid
Meyer said via email that his small paper had a paid circulation of 1,900 prior to the raid. It jumped significantly to about 5,500 after the raid.
"We had an incredible boost right after the raid — enough to make us the eighth largest paid circulation paper in the state," Meyer said via email. "Much of that has gone away, but we’re still getting a lot of renewals.
"We also hear virtually every week from distant readers who say something to the effect that their hometowns used to have a local newspaper, which they miss, but that they have adopted our paper as their hometown paper even though they’ve never been here. Some even send in letters to the editor on purely local issues.
"We’re seeing a lot of two-year renewals for full print subscriptions from people who we have no idea why they would be interested in Marion, Kansas, except for the raid," Meyer said via email.
Owner says real reason for raids was paper was investigating new police chief
Although police chief Cody obtained his three search warrants on suspicion of identity theft, Meyer believes the real reason is that Cody was upset that the paper was researching his law enforcement work history. Cody had worked 24 years in the Kansas City, Missouri, police department before leaving for Marion.
Meyer has said some of the material taken in the raid at the newsroom was information on the paper's investigation into Cody's background. Meyer has said the seizure of that information — including the names of confidential sources who had once worked with Cody and were talking to the newspaper — was well beyond the scope of the search warrant.
In addition, Meyer has said, Cody somehow thought information the newspaper had obtained from the Kansas Department of Revenue regarding the local cafe owner and her old DWI case, was obtained illegally.
It was not, Meyer said. The paper had received the information from someone and then to validate its credibility it asked for and received the same information in the form of a public document from the department of revenue.
That same document had also been sent to Herbel, the city councilwoman, who in turn had already shared it with the city prior to the police raids, Meyer said. Police already knew who had shared the department of revenue documents prior to the police raids, Meyer said. It was the estranged spouse of the local cafe owner. The have since divorced.
This isn't supposed to happen in America
The Marion County Record has received numerous awards for its reporting on the raids and subsequent events.
It received a Maria Ressa Prize for Courage in Journalism, which is sponsored by the University of Maryland.
The series of awards honors Maria Ressa, the winner of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize. She is known as a champion of global press freedom and is co-founder and CEO of Rappler, a Filipino online news website.
According to The Nobel Prize website:
"As an investigative journalist, she has distinguished herself as a fearless defender of freedom of expression and has exposed the abuse of power, use of violence and increasing authoritarianism of the regime of (former Philippines) President Rodrigo Duterte."
Meyer has said Ressa presented the award to him.
"She had been following the story in Manila," Meyer said. "She told me that 'we look to the United States as the place where things like this don't happen.'"