A federal lawsuit is now planned.

  • LordOfTheChia@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Speaking of the Judge that signed the warrant:

    https://www.npr.org/2023/08/17/1194392001/judge-who-signed-kansas-newspaper-search-warrant-had-2-dui-arrests-reports-say

    In another development, news emerged that Magistrate Judge Laura Viar, who signed the search warrant allowing police to seize the equipment, was arrested at least twice for driving under the influence. Those 2012 arrests came months apart in two counties — and it’s not clear how much information was shared between officials at the time, The Wichita Eagle reports.

    In the first arrest, Viar “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 arrested again months later, this time in her home county.

    “Officials say she was driving Morris County Magistrate Judge Thomas Ball’s vehicle, when she ran off the road and hit a shed near the Council Grove football field,” TV station WIBW reported in 2012, adding that at the time, the prosecutor was on the Morris County Anti-Drug Task Force.

    “She was charged with DUI, reckless driving and refusal to take a preliminary breathalyzer,” the Emporia Gazette reported at the time.

    Despite those issues, Viar was reelected as county prosecutor several times. In late 2022, she was chosen to fill a slot as a magistrate judge in the 8th Judicial District after the sitting judge retired.