By Whitney Wild, Elizabeth Wolfe and Andy Rose | CNN
The judge who signed off on a search warrant authorizing the raid of a newspaper office in Marion, Kansas, is facing a complaint about her decision and has been asked by a judicial body to respond, records shared with CNN by the complainant show.
Kansas resident Keri Strahler filed the complaint against Judge Laura Viar about a week after police raided the office of the Marion County Record, the home of the paper’s publisher and a county councilwoman, seizing reporters’ cell phones and computers, among other items, in a move that drew widespread condemnation from news organizations and press freedom advocates.
The complaint requests the Kansas Commission on Judicial Conduct to review “Viar’s mental capacity in her decision to seemingly circumvent federal and state law” when she signed off on the search warrant for the newspaper office, according to a copy of the complaint provided by Strahler.
The commission has asked Viar to respond to the complaint, which its members have slated for consideration on November 3, according to a letter from the commission’s secretary, Douglas T. Shima, to Strahler.
CNN has reached out to Viar and the commission for comment.
The warrants were executed as part of an investigation into “identity theft” and “unlawful acts concerning computers,” according to unsealed search warrant affidavits. Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody suggested in his affidavits that the raids were based on the belief that reporter Phyllis Zorn unlawfully obtained the driving records of local restaurant owner Kari Newell before the paper published a story about her.
But the county’s top prosecutor withdrew the search warrants days after the raids due to “insufficient evidence” and said authorities would return the seized items.
The Record’s publisher, Eric Meyer, said the newspaper has been “vindicated” by the reversal after the raid was widely criticized as a violation…
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