A fifth lawsuit is filed following the raid of the Marion County Record newspaper. Former Marion Vice Mayor Ruth Herbel is filing a federal lawsuit in connection with police raids that took place last summer.

Herbel’s home was included in a series of raids that also targeted the Marion County Record newspaper offices and the home of its publisher. Herbel’s lawsuit claims her First and Fourth Amendment rights were violated, and she is seeking damages.

The Kansas Reflector reports Herbel’s lawsuit alleges violations of constitutional rights to free speech and protections from unreasonable searches and seizures. The narrative is consistent with a lawsuit filed April 1 by Marion County Record editor and publisher Eric Meyer, whose mother, Joan, the paper’s co-publisher, died of stress-induced heart failure a day after police raided her home.

Herbel’s lawsuit is the fifth to be filed in response to the Aug. 11, 2023, raids by city and county law enforcement of the newspaper office, the publisher’s home and Herbel’s home. Recent court filings show the cases could be eventually consolidated.

The Colorado Bureau of Investigation since November has been investigating whether journalists, law enforcement officers or anyone else broke the law in the events surrounding the newsroom raid. The investigation has generated nearly 10,000 pages of documents.

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Photo via KSN News