'Get Out of My House': Video Shows 98-Year-Old Newspaper Owner Swearing at Cops During Raid
A 98-year-old co-owner of a Kansas newspaper demanded that police conducting a raid of her home leave and swore at them multiple times while they disregarded her.
Joan Meyer — who owned the Marion County Record, a weekly newspaper — died a day after the raid.
Eric, publisher and co-owner of the paper, blamed the stress of the Aug. 11 raid of their home for his mother’s death, according to NBC News.
Police also searched the newsroom of the paper.
Authorities were seeking evidence that a reporter with the paper had engaged in identity theft and unlawfully accessed the Kansas Criminal Justice Information System in working on a story about a restaurant owner in Marion, who had previously been arrested for driving under the influence.
“Don’t you touch any of that stuff. This is my house. You a**hole,” Joan Meyer can be heard telling officers in surveillance footage Eric made public from the raid.
“Did your mother love you? Do you love on your mother? You’re an a**hole,” the late newspaper co-owner said. “Police chief? You’re the chief? Oh, god. Get out of my house.”
WARNING: The following video contains vulgar language that some viewers may find offensive.
– @KSHB41 obtained footage of cops raiding the home of Eric Meyer, the owner of the Marion County Record
98-yr-old Joan Meyer, his mother who lived with him and co-publisher, died the next day. Her son said the trauma of the raid contributed to her death https://t.co/g8WlHuiKWZ pic.twitter.com/rbGWf6jsAj
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) August 21, 2023
Joan Meyer continued to confront police officers as they searched her home.
“Get out and stand outside,” she said. “You stand outside that door. I don’t want you in my house.”
Police asked at one point how many computers were in the residence.
“I’m not going to tell you,” Meyer responded.
She can also be seen trying to push her way through an officer with her walker.
“Get out of my way, I want to see what they’re doing,” she said.
The incident made national headlines with concerns that the Meyers’ constitutional rights to freedom of the press and freedom from unlawful searches and seizures had been violated.
Marion County Attorney Joel Ensey reviewed the matter and determined local authorities lacked the proper probable cause to issue search warrants.
Ensey ordered the Marion Police return all seized items.
“It is not a crime in America to be a reporter,” Bernie Rhodes, an attorney for the Meyers and their newspaper, told Fox News.
Eric Meyer conveyed to KSHB-TV reporter Jessica McMaster that he feels vindicated. He offered that the lesson that Americans should take from the incident is, “It can happen to anybody.”
I’m putting together my story for later but here’s a message from Eric Meyer, owner of Marion County Record to get you by. @KSHB41 pic.twitter.com/HWyNEn3pEK
— Jessica McMaster (@JessMcMasterKC) August 16, 2023
“They need to do what we did: Fight back as much as you can, because there are good people out there who will help you,” Meyer said. “If it weren’t for the outpouring of support that we got on this, we’re probably be out of business right now.”
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