By Matthew Kelly, The Kansas City Star (TNS)

The August 2023 raid on a small-town Kansas newspaper and its owner’s home drew national headlines and was roundly criticized as an attack on press freedom.

Now, rural Marion County is paying for the role it played in signing off on the raids , which followed a local restaurateur’s complaints about journalists investigating her.

On Monday, the Marion County Board of Commissioners agreed to more than $3 million in combined payouts to three journalists and a former city councilor whose home was also raided.

Eric Meyer, the owner and editor of the Marion County Record, said the paper’s lawsuits against the city of Marion and former Police Chief Gideon Cody are ongoing.

Cody, a former Kansas City police captain hired in Marion in 2023,

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