TOPEKA — The magistrate who authorized last year’s police raid on the Marion County Record escaped discipline from a state panel by making claims that contradict statements in federal lawsuits about how the search warrants arrived in front of her and whether the police chief swore they were true before she signed them.

Magistrate Judge Laura Viar’s secret explanation, obtained by Kansas Reflector, adds a new layer of confusion and mystery to how law enforcement were able to carry out the search and seizure of journalists’ computers and cellphones without regard for state and federal laws that prohibit such police action. It also raises concerns about the low standards set for judges by the Kansas Commission on Judicial Conduct.

Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody prepared search warrant applications with the assistance of a sheriff’s deputy that accused newspaper reporter Phyllis Zorn of committing identity theft by looking up a driving record in a Kansas Department of Revenue public database. Publisher and editor Eric Meyer and Councilwoman Ruth Herbel were targeted for having a copy of the record.

In court documents, Cody said he emailed the search warrant applications to County Attorney Joel Ensey, whose office delivered them to the judge. Ensey, in an email he sent to himself a day after the Aug. 11, 2023, raid, said he printed off the applications without reading them and had an office manager deliver them to the judge. That email has been attached to court filings.

A Topeka woman in April filed a complaint against Viar with the Kansas Commission on Judicial Conduct after reading Meyer’s lawsuit against Cody and others. The lawsuit questions whether the search warrants were legal if Cody never appeared before the judge.

In Viar’s response to the disciplinary panel, she wrote that District Judge Susan Robson approached her with an unknown law enforcement officer on the morning of the raid. According to Viar, Robson introduced the officer as Cody and said she couldn’t sign the warrants “because of her history with the city,” which isn’t explained. Cody led the judges to believe that Kansas Bureau of Investigation agents, who had assisted Cody in the investigation, were prepared to join the raid, even though they weren’t, Viar wrote.

“I can say with 100% certainty that I did not approve the search warrants and return them to Chief Cody until I had verified under oath his signature and the truthfulness of the statements in the supporting affidavits,” Viar wrote.

The disciplinary panel dismissed the complaint against Viar after receiving her response, according to a letter obtained by Kansas Reflector. It isn’t clear whether the panel, which operates in secrecy by Kansas Supreme Court rule, independently investigated the accuracy of Viar’s account.

The panel members who dismissed the complaint against Viar were Grant County District Judge Bradley Ambrosier; Kansas City, Kansas, attorney Tonda Jones Hill; Rosemary Kolich, of the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth; Kansas Court of Appeals Judge Thomas Malone; and Johnson County Judge Thomas Kelly Ryan.

Viar didn’t respond to an email inquiry asking her to reconcile her account with the ones provided by Cody and Ensey.

The commission directed questions to Lisa Taylor, spokeswoman for the Office of Judicial Administration, who said, “I have no information related to this matter.”

Jared McClain, an attorney with the Virginia-based Institute for Justice who represents Herbel in her federal lawsuit over the raid, said he was surprised that Viar’s account differs “so drastically” from the police chief and county attorney.

“Those are completely different versions of the truth,” McClain said. “And I don’t see what Cody or Ensey could have to gain by telling their version of the story, because their version of the story is worse for them. But Viar’s is better for everyone. So if that were the truth, why did the other guys spend a year saying something different?”

McClain also said it was “obvious” there was no probable cause for the searches, because the police theory of a crime dealt with accessing a public record on a public website.

The same disciplinary panel previously dismissed a complaint against Viar that was based on the lack of evidence to support a crime, the federal and state laws that should have prevented the judge from signing the documents, and the violation of constitutional freedoms.

Emily Bradbury, executive director of the Kansas Press Association, said she was disappointed the disciplinary panel had let Viar off the hook.

“It’s another level of accountability that will never happen,” Bradbury said.

Zorn, the reporter whose work became a pretext for the raid, said she was upset that police “came in with such a lousy excuse for a warrant.”

“This thing was political. And I wasn’t the target. I was actually the pawn,” Zorn said. “They seized upon something and used that as their excuse. And I will say this: I was raised by a small town cop who spent 18 and three-quarters years with highway patrol. He has been dead for four years. There’s no doubt in my mind he is still spinning in his grave.”

It took 11 innings to decide, but the door is not shut on the Detroit Tigers securing a split in the first series of the month of August. The Tigers (53-59) walked off the Royals in a come-from-behind test at Comerica Park on Saturday.

Scoring did not commence until the sixth inning, when Royals (62-50) first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino hit his 15th home run of the season, a solo shot; it was his third long ball of the series. The Tigers struck back with an RBI single by Andy Ibanez in the bottom half, scoring Bligh Madris to tie things up.

In the seventh inning, recent trade acquisition Paul DeJong had his first moment of major impact in a Royals uniform. He hit a two-run home run off Kenta Maeda, crushing a hanging pitch into left field. That gave Kansas City a 3-1 lead, and against a Tigers offense that has not been among the best in baseball this season, that’s the position in which the Royals entered the bottom of the ninth.

Relief pitcher Hunter Harvey struggled, giving up a solo home run to Bligh Madris. Up two, solos aren’t fatal, but Detroit kept the inning going and that culminated in a game-tying RBI double by shortstop Javier Baez. Royals superstar shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. scored Kyle Isbel on a sacrifice fly in the 10th, but again the feisty Tigers came back, leveling the score once more with a Justyn-Henry Malloy double in the home half.

The 11th and final inning initially played out in a similar fashion, with Kansas City getting the first run. Extra-innings runner Dairon Blanco stole third base, initially being called out until a challenge from the dugout and reached home on a single from Hunter Renfroe. Royals manager Matt Quatraro sent out closer James McArthur to get the last three outs, and lock up the series.

That outcome was not in the cards. Instead, the Tigers reaped the benefits of an RBI triple by Parker Meadows, scoring 11th-inning runner Ryan Vilade, and a walk-off single from right fielder Wenceel Perez. McArthur had induced a double play on the prior batter, but that wasn’t enough to finish the deal, and the Royals blew the save on an evening where another new face (former Oakland Athletic Lucas Erceg) pitched in relief.

The loss snapped a five-game winning streak for Kansas City. The series finale in Detroit is scheduled for a 12:40 p.m. CT first pitch Sunday.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A boil water advisory will likely remain in effect through Monday, Aug. 5 for water customers in North Kansas City.

Late Thursday night, a key water main broke in the city, causing a disruption in water pressure, which prompted the boil water advisory.

Work to repair the broken water main closed some streets in the city.

On Saturday morning, a city spokesperson said repairs to the water main have been completed, but additional testing is still required to make sure the water system is back to normal.

“The city is working with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources to test and monitor the city’s water quality as water pressure and capacity in the system returns and customer usage is restored to normal levels,” the spokesperson said Saturday in a press release.

More information about the boil water advisory is available on the city’s website.

Residents can receive bottled water from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 3 at the parking lot at North Kansas City High School. Cases of water will be determined by the number of people in the household and are only available while supplies last.

Anyone who cannot get to the bottled water pickup can still receive bottled water by calling the Clay County Public Health Center at 816-595-4200.

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