A Kansas sheriff is suspended for his role in a newspaper raid

That's a good start.

In August, a small-town judge approved a small-town raid on a small-town newspaper and on the homes of journalists in Marion, Kan. The day after the searches, the 98-year old editor of the newspaper, Joan Meyer, died — from the stress of the raid on her home and workplace, her son said.

You can watch Miss. Meyer defend her rights below. It was the last day of her life and she went down swinging.

The raids were immoral and illegal, and the sheriff who led the charge, Gideon Cody, was suspended this weekend.

But Cody didn’t act alone. Far from it. The sad cast of Marion’s sad characters includes:

• The county attorney, Joel Ensey, who had prior knowledge about the planned raid and only after the fact said the raid was wrong.

• Laura Viar, the magistrate judge who is now on the business end of a judicial misconduct investigation

• Kari Newell, the business owner who started the whole mess because she wanted to keep her 2008 drunk driving conviction out of the local papers, and who once kicked out the local press — including Marion County Record reporters — from a public meeting held in her business. Bad form all around, Kari.

• The other deputies who helped carry out the raids.

The interesting thing about the aftermath of this story is that just about everyone involved — Newell, Viar — had something to hide, and by their actions to try to thwart press coverage, at least some of their secrets (drunk driving arrests chief among them) were revealed. Funny how that works.

Nevertheless, this was gross overreach, and would that all of these characters find themselves on the business end of the equivalent of misconduct investigations.