Government

Judge Who Crashed Into A School While License Suspended From Another DUI Approved Warrant To Raid Newspaper

Judge: First Amendment? Hold my beer.

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Judge’s gavel with car key and glass of whiskey on black.Joan Meyer died last week amid the stress of police raiding her home and the offices of the 153-year-old Marion County Record that Meyer co-owned. The entire police department of the small town showed up seizing computers, phones, and other materials after the newspaper began sniffing around a local restauranteur’s DUI record and allegations that she continued driving without a license. They informed the police as part of the investigation into the tip, who did not address the “driving without a license” part but did get hot and bothered about the “newspaper asking questions about how police do their jobs” part.

That the paper had been looking into allegations of sexual misconduct lodged against the local police chief probably didn’t help its standing with the cops.

But the First Amendment makes it hard to get a warrant to toss a newspaper office. Especially without any probable cause that the paper did anything wrong. The warrant operates on the premise that the paper impersonated the restaurant owner to get access to her records — which could be illegal — though there’s no reason to believe they did anything but receive a tip and ask questions about — which is most definitely not illegal.

Getting an unconstitutional warrant without probable cause? Try that in a small town and… you’re in luck!

Thankfully for the cops, they found a judge willing to issue a warrant based entirely on vibes. That she has her own history of multiple DUIs and driving without a license and those incidents more or less disappearing is surely a coincidence:

Judge Laura Viar, who was appointed on Jan. 1 to fill a vacant 8th Judicial District magistrate seat, was arrested at least twice for DUI in two different Kansas counties in 2012, a Wichita Eagle investigation found.

Viar, who was appointed to fill the seat this year having previously served as the prosecutor for neighboring Morris County, has at least a couple DUI arrests according to the Wichita Eagle’s reporting. One in Coffey County on January 25, 2012, that was previously unreported and another in her homebase of Morris County on August of 2012 that was, well…

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The second — in Morris County on Aug. 6, 2012 — came amid an unopposed reelection bid for Morris County attorney. She was not supposed to be driving because her driver’s license was suspended in the Coffey County case, court records show. She reportedly drove off-road and crashed into a school building next to Council Grove’s football field while driving then-8th District Magistrate Judge Thomas Ball’s vehicle.

That story generated some attention during her reelection bid, but she was a Republican in Kansas so it was less of a speedbump for her than, say, Council Grove High School.

Given that she was driving a judge’s car, all the judges recused themselves and the whole thing was turned over to a special prosecutor. From there…

It’s unclear what happened next. The case does not exist in the state’s court records system, and no follow-up articles appear in any publicly available newspaper archives.

Starting to think the issue of burying DUI records might be personal.

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As for the first arrest in Coffey County, the then-prosecutor agreed to a diversion agreement. And what happened with that?

In Coffey County, Viar, who went by Laura E. Allen at the time, was charged and entered a diversion agreement — which was extended six months because she refused to get an alcohol and drug evaluation and stopped communicating with her lawyer.

She was never sanctioned by the state’s attorney discipline board and won reelection multiple times as a Republican candidate for Morris County attorney.

It’s not entirely clear if the judge listed these incidents on her application form for this job. She was obligated to, but at this point who knows?

The Wichita Eagle’s reporting on this is so thorough. Good thing it doesn’t reside in the 8th Judicial District or they might find their offices raided!

One hopes that the spirit of Joan Meyer is taking comfort in watching reporters do their jobs so well, holding government to task without fear or favor.

Judge who approved raid on Kansas newspaper has history of DUI arrests [Wichita Eagle]
Who was Joan Meyer? Kansas paper co-owner who rebuked police raid as ‘Hitler tactics’ – and died a day later [The Guardian]

HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

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