County admits wrongdoing, will pay $3 million+ in newspaper raid

In a major and increasingly infrequent victory for freedom of the press, Marion County agreed Monday to pay more than $3 million for its role in disavowed raids on the Record newsroom and two homes.

The county agreed to apologize, concede that wrongdoing likely occurred, and accept a formal court judgment against it for helping plan and participating in raids Aug. 11, 2023, that contributed to the death of Record co-owner Joan Meyer.

Allegations against the City of Marion for its role in the raids remain pending.

“This is a first step — but a big step — in making sure that Joan Meyer’s death served a purpose,” Record attorney Bernie Rhodes said, “in making sure that the next crazed cop who thinks they can raid a newsroom understands the consequences are measured in millions of dollars.”

The judgment was the result of mediation and negotiation but was not a traditional legal settlement in which the defendant fails to admit responsibility.

“The admission of wrongdoing is the most important part,” Record publisher Eric Meyer said. “In our democracy, the press is a watchdog against abuse. If the watchdog itself is the target of abuse, and all it does is roll over, democracy suffers.”

As part of the agreement, the county is required to release this formal apology:

“The Sheriff’s Office wishes to express its sincere regrets to Eric and Joan Meyer and Ruth and Ronald Herbel for its participation in the drafting and execution of the Marion Police Department’s search warrants on their homes and the Marion County Record.”

The statement also includes this passage sought by the Record in an attempt to forestall any future attempts by others to claim that laws against such raids are not clearly established:

“This likely would not have happened if established law had been reviewed and applied prior to the execution of the warrants.”

By design, total awards from the county slightly exceed the county’s insurance coverage.

“We didn’t want anyone to say this case was no big deal because insurance covered everything,” Meyer said. “But as loyal members of the community, we also didn’t want to bankrupt the county.”

Two county policies will provide a total of $3 million to pay for the $3.05 million in awards and settlements.

Record business manager Cheri Bentz, who suffered aggravation of health issues as a result of the raid, earlier settled for $50,000.

The latest awards include:

• $200,000 to Eric Meyer, whose home was raided and two computers and a cell phone seized.
• $250,000 to reporter Deb Gruver, whose cell phone was seized. She resigned soon after the raid, stating that she no longer could take the stress of working in Marion County.
• $300,000 to the Marion County Record, where three computers and a file server were seized and business operations were disrupted.
• $600,000 to reporter Phyllis Zorn, whose cell phone was seized and who suffered significant aggravation of a previous disorder that might have required use of her phone. In apparent anticipation of the agreement, she announced her retirement, effective immediately. Like Gruver, she has cited stress of continuing to work in Marion County.
• $650,000 to former vice mayor Ruth Herbel, whose computer and cell phone were seized, and her husband, Ron, whose dementia was aggravated by the raid on their home.
• $1 million to the estate of Joan Meyer, who died of sudden cardiac arrest aggravated by stress of the 2½-hour raid on her home by as many as seven officers.

“When the officers were raiding her house, Joan Meyer told them, ‘Boy, are you going to be in trouble,’ ” Rhodes said. “She was so right.”

After legal fees and taxes are deducted, plaintiffs are likely to receive significantly less than the amounts listed.

“This never has been about money,” Eric Meyer said. “The key issue always has been that no one is above the law. No one can trample on the First and Fourth Amendments for personal or political purposes and get away with it.

“When my mother warned officers that the stress they were putting her under might lead to her death, she called what they were doing Hitler tactics. What keeps our democracy from descending as Germany did before World War II is the courage she demonstrated — and we’ve tried to continue — in fighting back.”

Specific defendants now released from the case are Sheriff Jeff Soyez and investigator Aaron Christner, who played key roles in drafting and executing now-disavowed applications for search warrants on the Record newsroom and the Herbel and Meyer homes.

“The court judgment that will be entered against the county, Sheriff Soyez and detective Christner is the same court judgment that would be entered following a jury trial,” Rhodes said. “Today’s actions merely shorten the time before that judgment is entered. They don’t eliminate the stink of the judgment.”

Remaining as defendants in three still unresolved federal civil rights lawsuits are the City of Marion, former mayor David Mayfield, former police chief Gideon Cody, and former police officer Zach Hudlin.

“My client and I,” Zorn’s attorney, Randy Rathbun, said, “are gratified that justice has been done as to the claims against the sheriff’s office and that the office has admitted their wrongdoing.  Now on to the real bad actors in this matter — the city officials.” 

They are accused of instigating the case and then having conspired with county officers to produce search warrant applications that failed to reflect that they knew Herbel, Meyer, Zorn, and the Record might not have broken any laws.

“Every police officer should know that they can’t punish someone for their political speech,” the Herbels’ attorney, Jared McClain of the Institute for Justice, said. “And every police officer should know that they need probable cause to enter someone’s home and search their phone and computer.

“Yet the Marion County Sheriff’s Office helped draft bogus warrants designed to retaliate against Ruth Herbel for her work as vice mayor. What they put Ruth and Ronald through is inexcusable.

“We’re grateful that they’ve accepted responsibility, admitted that they violated the Herbels’ constitutional rights, and apologized. We look forward to continuing our fight for accountability against David Mayfield, Gideon Cody, Zach Hudlin, and the City of Marion.”

Rhodes, representing Meyer and the newspaper, sounded a similar tone.

  When you buy a pair of shoes at the store, they check both shoes to make sure they are the same size,” he said. “The payment by the county is the first shoe to drop.   I can assure you when the shoe drops against the city, the shoe sizes won’t match.”

All three plaintiffs have expressed resolve about seeing the city portion of the case all the way to trial.

“This would have been different if the city had not circled the wagons and defended Cody for months after the raid,” Eric Meyer said. “Instead, it refused to express any remorse. Even after Mayfield left office, it has battled at every turn, seeking among other things to prevent us from deposing witnesses and inspecting records to learn the truth of what happened.”

Only after evidence surfaced indicating that Cody might have tried to cover up messages he exchanged with supposed victim Kari Newell was he suspended and later resigned.

A special prosecutors’ report, produced nearly a year after the raid, proposed criminal charges against him.

Earlier this fall, he was bound over for trial Feb. 2 on felony charges of interfering with the judicial process.

“It’s a shame additional criminal charges aren’t possible,” Eric Meyer said, “but the federal civil cases will do everything they can to discourage future abuses of power.”

In a related development, a federal magistrate overseeing preliminary motions in the cases against the city and county finally granted on Friday a motion filed May 8 by the Record to lift the ban on deposing witnesses.

The ban, initially requested by the city, was imposed more than a year ago.

The Record and other plaintiffs may now begin to require those involved to testify under oath about the raid and its motivations.

After a 15-minute closed-door session Monday, commissioners votes unanimously to accept agreements with Herbel and Meyer regarding stipulated judgments and public statements by the defendants.

No votes were needed for the other plaintiffs as they agreed to traditional settlements.