A documentary about how law enforcement raided a local newspaper and how it led to the death of a local journalist will be screened on the Wichita State campus on Thursday, Feb. 1.

The Wichita Eagle’s documentary, “Unwarranted: The Senseless Death of Journalist Joan Meyer,” explores an attack on First and Fourth Amendment rights by law enforcement.

Last August in Marion, Kansas, the police department raided the Marion County Record, a local newspaper, and the home of 98-year-old Joan Meyer, longtime owner/reporter, who died a day later.

Eric Meyer, the son of Joan and editor of the Marion County Record, was there with his mother during the raid. He said he appreciated the documentary’s coverage. 

“It’s a wonderful, wonderful compilation of things and captures my mother’s spirit fairly accurately,” Eric said. “It’s a very accurate portrayal of what went on.”

The documentary screening will also include a panel, featuring Eric, the documentary producers Jaime Green and Travis Heying, and Emily Bradbury, executive director of the Kansas Press Association.

Green, the visuals editor at the Wichita Eagle, said that she was drawn to tell Joan’s story after reading the obituary Carrie Rengers wrote on Aug. 14. 

“But of course, to tell her story, you have to tell what happened to her on Aug. 11,” Green said.

Last August, before the raid, a search warrant was issued on Marion County Record about its information on a local restaurant owner, Kari Newell, who was trying to get a liquor license. Newell accused the paper of violating her privacy by accessing information about her and her driving record, which were obtained legally via the Kansas Open Records Act, prompting an “unprecedented raid” that drew the nation’s attention.

“So what was the purpose of raiding her house? I mean, there was none,” Eric said. “They weren’t going to discover anything that they couldn’t ask for. They just do it to terrorize people.”

The documentary features bodycam footage of the raid, centering on Joan and what occurred the day before her death. 

“It just pays homage to Joan Meyer, who ran a newspaper from 1953 until the time of her death at age 98,” Heying, a photojournalist at The Eagle, said. “And she was good. She was a good small-town journalist. She didn’t deserve to die the way she did.”

Green and Heying worked closely together while filming the documentary. They swapped a hard drive between themselves and later spent hours together editing. Heying said Green made sure to keep Joan’s part of the story alive. 

“I want them to get a sense of who Joan was and why what she did for the community was so important,” Green said.

The documentary will be shown at the CAC Theater, on the southwest side of the Rhatigan Student Center, on Thursday at 6:30 p.m.