Former Marion deputy mayor files lawsuit related to police raids last summer

WICHITA, Kansas (KWCH) – Former Marion Deputy Mayor and City Councilwoman Ruth Herbel has announced her decision to file a lawsuit in federal court related to police raids last summer that included her home. Herbel’s lawsuit is the fifth in the case, which also involved police raids on the Marion County Record offices and the home of publisher and editor Eric Meyer.

The police actions and their consequences made national headlines in the months that followed.

Records showed that police were looking for evidence that a Marion County Record reporter had conducted an improper computer search to obtain information about a local business owner’s application for a liquor license and a previous conviction for driving under the influence. Herbel called the search warrant police used to search her home “bogus.” She said that Police Chief Gideon Cody, who is named in four other lawsuits related to the raid, confiscated her cellphone and that even after the search warrant was lifted, Gideon and Marion Mayor David Mayfield “continued to look for an opportunity to prosecute her,” Herbel said.

In her lawsuit, Herbel claims that her rights under the First and Fourth Amendments to the Constitution were violated.

“Although the retaliatory search and seizure was supported by a warrant, it was based on knowingly false information that did not even constitute a reasonable suspicion. The judge issued the warrant based on these material lies and omissions and did not require anyone to swear to its veracity. Any reasonable officer would have known the warrant was invalid,” the Institute for Justice said in a press release announcing Herbel’s lawsuit.

Personally, Herbel said the search of her home had “very serious human consequences.”

“Ruth’s husband, who suffers from dementia, was traumatized when he opened the door to find police with a search warrant. Cody himself confiscated Ruth’s phone, even though it was her only phone and had her children’s and doctor’s numbers stored on it,” the Institute for Justice said.

The lawsuit seeks damages to compensate Herbel and her husband “for the harm they suffered as a result of the retaliatory plan of Mayor Mayfield and his allies,” the Institute for Justice summarized.

Meyer filed a lawsuit in early April, after three other lawsuits had been filed by two Marion County reporters and the newspaper’s bureau chief.

Meyer’s lawsuit claims the raid, in which police seized the newspaper’s electronic devices that may have contained the records of a local restaurant owner, was an “intolerable violation of … constitutional rights.” The suit also blames the raid for the death of Meyer’s mother, Joan, the newspaper’s owner; she died of cardiac arrest a day after the raid at age 98.

Meyer names the city of Marion, former mayor David Mayfield, then-Police Chief Cody, acting Police Chief Zach Hudlin, the Marion County Board of Commissioners, Marion County Sheriff Jeff Soyez and Detective Aaron Christner in the suit. Meyer is seeking more than $5 million personally, on behalf of his mother’s estate, which the suit calls a “wrongful death,” and on behalf of the Record. The suit also seeks $4 million in punitive damages.

Copyright 2024 KWCH. All rights reserved. To report a correction or typo, please email [email protected]