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Kansas Bureau of Investigation Takes Over Newspaper Raid Case

The bureau’s director previously said that though he believed in freedom of the press, members of the media were not “above the law.”

Kansas’ top law enforcement agency will now lead the criminal investigation that led police in the city of Marion to raid a local newspaper last Friday, seizing devices and—according to the paper’s publisher—causing the stress-related death of its 98-year-old co-owner. The Kansas Bureau of Investigation confirmed to The Kansas City Star late Monday that it was the “lead law enforcement agency” on the case. “As we transition, we will review prior steps taken and work to determine how best to proceed with the case. Once our thorough investigation concludes, we will forward all investigative facts to the prosecutor for review,” a bureau spokesperson said in a statement. The move comes after a local ABC affiliate reported that the Marion Police Department and the Marion County Attorney requested that the bureau join the investigation. The KBI reportedly assigned one agent to the inquiry last Tuesday; that agent was not present during the raid on the Marion County Record, according to the affiliate. On Sunday, the bureau’s director, Tony Mattivi, implied in a statement that the raid—the result of a search warrant—was justified, saying that though he believed “freedom of the press is a vanguard of American democracy,” members of the media were not “above the law.”