A 98-year-old girl lifeless, a small city’s repute in tatters, and 1st and 4th Modification protections put to the take a look at. That’s the end result of a disastrous police raid on the Marion County Report in August 2023.
The story of the raid on the newspaper in Marion, Kansas and the nationwide uproar it triggered is informed within the documentary Seized, which simply screened on the Bentonville Movie Pageant in Arkansas after holding its world premiere in January at Sundance (the title comes from the headline “Seized… however not silenced” that bannered the Marion County Report after the raid). Director Sharon Liese is predicated within the Kansas Metropolis, KS space about two hours from Marion and headed to the city of 1,900 folks after information broke of the incident.
“Usually… I don’t do one thing that’s proper on the market within the zeitgeist that massive as a result of I don’t need to get into the scrum with different filmmakers who’re attempting to inform the story,” Liese defined at a Q&A after the Bentonville screening. “This one, I used to be somewhat bit hesitant, however because it was so near my home… I knew that different folks couldn’t get to them as simply, so I simply drove there after which met Eric [Meyer, Marion County Record publisher]. And Eric being the consummate newspaperman that he’s, he was like, ‘You bought right here first, you get the inside track.’”
Marion County Report publisher-editor Eric Meyer, left, sits subsequent to reporter Deb Gruver on the metropolis council assembly press desk in Marion, Kansas.
Chase Castor for The Washington Publish by way of Getty Pictures
Liese begins the documentary by establishing the sturdy characters entangled within the raid and its aftermath, amongst them Meyer and his nonagenarian mom, Joan Meyer; Dave Mayfield, the Marion mayor on the time of the raid; present Mayor Mike Powers; native enterprise proprietor Kari Newell; Newell’s ex-best pal Pam Maag; Gideon Cody, the Marion police chief in 2023 who carried out the raid on the newspaper workplace and on the house of Eric Meyer and his mother; reporter Deb Gruver and a number of other different newspaper workers who had their cell telephones and computer systems seized by regulation enforcement, and younger reporter Finn Hartnett, who began with the Marion County Report after the raid.
“We wished it to be informed like the way in which folks inform one another a narrative,” Liese stated of how she structured the movie. “You don’t inform every thing linearly and it’s like, ‘Nicely, wait, you must know this earlier than. Let me inform you somewhat bit about Pam [Maag] earlier than I inform you [more] about it.’ And so, the historical past of the strain between the newspaper and the neighborhood was actually essential… to have the ability to get into the story of how the raids occurred, as a result of it’s not one thing you possibly can clarify in 90 seconds.”
Battle traces had been drawn in the neighborhood effectively earlier than the raid, between supporters of Meyer and his newspaper’s journalistic and investigative perform and a few native residents who discovered Meyer obnoxious and felt he used his publication to settle private scores. Getting key figures from either side to take part within the movie turned a significant problem for Liese and her producers.
Producer Paul Matyasovsky and director Sharon Liese attend the Bentonville Movie Pageant Awards Ceremony on June 20, 2026 in Bentonville, Arkansas.
Jason Davis/Getty Pictures for Bentonville Movie Pageant
“I emailed [Mayor Mike Powers] and stated, ‘We would like you to present your perspective,’” producer Paul Matyasovsky recounted on the Q&A. “At first, he was, ‘No manner, I’m bored with cameras and being interviewed,’ and so forth. And we simply sort of labored our manner by means of it and I met with him, simply the 2 of us. We talked. I sort of gave him our viewpoint of the place we have been attempting to come back into the story, that it wasn’t meant to be a hagiography of Eric Meyer or that Eric one way or the other had artistic management — which was a rumor that had unfold by means of city and was actually onerous for us to dispel.”
Matyasovsky added, “However as soon as Mike Powers agreed to take part, he’s so revered amongst most people in Marion, the remainder of the dominoes sort of fell from there.”
Kari Newell, former proprietor of a restaurant and coffeeshop in Marion, is questioned throughout an Oct. 15, 2025 haring about how former Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody instructed her to delete textual content messages between them.
Pool photograph by Travis Heying/Wichita Eagle
The raid seems to have been triggered by a criticism from Kari Newell – the native enterprise owner-restaurateur – that somebody had illegally obtained her previous driving report, which included a DUI cost, and offered it to the Marion County Report. The newspaper didn’t publish that data initially however notified the native police division in regards to the tip it had acquired. Chief Cody, who apparently was romantically concerned with Newell, took up the case and went to the native district lawyer with it. The D.A. then bought a choose to signal a search warrant. Bought all that?
Some parts of the dispute stay lower than crystal clear, however what is for certain is that Chief Cody’s actions ultimately price him his job. Extra tragically, 98-year-old Joan Meyer, Marion County Report co-owner, who was at house when the police confirmed as much as seize computer systems and cell telephones (they even tried to get hers), turned so upset over the intrusion that it adversely affected her well being, and he or she died the following day.
(Chris Mercer, who helped regulation enforcement serve the warrant on Joan and Eric Meyer, approached the filmmakers late in manufacturing, wishing to inform his facet of the story. Notes producer Paul Matyasovsky, “When [Mercer] says [in the interview], ‘I bought it worse than the man who misplaced his mom,’ that’s fairly onerous to listen to for most individuals. However that being stated, the impact that it had on him is fascinating and I believe worthwhile listening to. And what an viewers watching [the film] does with that’s as much as them.”).
(L-R) Marion County Report writer Eric Meyer, director Sharon Liese, and Marion County Report reporter Finn Hartnett attend the ‘Seized’ world premiere on the Sundance Movie Pageant on January 25, 2026 in Park Metropolis, Utah.
Neilson Barnard/Getty Pictures
Seized gained the Grand Jury Award for Finest Documentary Movie on the Florida Movie Pageant, together with being nominated for the Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Documentary at Sundance. It screened earlier this month at DC/DOX and has additionally performed on the True/False pageant in Columbia, MO, Full Body in Durham, NC, the Lighthouse Worldwide Movie Pageant in New Jersey, the Martha’s Winery Movie Pageant and plenty of different festivals. Together with Liese and Matyasovsky, the movie is produced by Sasha Alpert.
Deadline understands HBO has acquired the documentary, though it hasn’t formally launched that information. With all of the compelling characters within the real-life drama and the essential constitutional points raised by the regulation enforcement overreach, a fictionalized adaptation looks like a pure. Liese concurs, and even has a possible director-producer in thoughts, an Oscar winner who has taken on many fact-based tales, from Vice to The Massive Brief.
“We now have the deck already,” Liese stated on the Q&A. “Adam McKay, are you on the market?”
