Police stage ‘chilling’ raid on Marion County newspaper

[*pally*]

maybe the Magistrate was afraid the newspaper would go searching into her record like the Wichita Eagle did this week.  She has to run for her job next year (she was appointed to fill a term of a retired magistrate) and probably didn't want her own history of DUIs and driving under a suspended license coming out

https://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article278237263.html

Quote:The Kansas magistrate judge who authorized a police raid of the Marion County Record newsroom over its probe into a local restaurateur’s drunken-driving record has her own hidden history of driving under the influence. Judge Laura Viar, who was appointed on Jan. 1 to fill a vacant 8th Judicial District magistrate seat, was arrested at least twice for DUI in two different Kansas counties in 2012, a Wichita Eagle investigation found. She was the lead prosecutor for Morris County at the time.



 The first arrest — in Coffey County, about an hour and 15 minutes southeast of her home in Council Grove, on Jan. 25, 2012 — has not been reported.



 The second — in Morris County on Aug. 6, 2012 — came amid an unopposed reelection bid for Morris County attorney. She was not supposed to be driving because her driver’s license was suspended in the Coffey County case, court records show. She reportedly drove off-road and crashed into a school building next to Council Grove’s football field while driving then-8th District Magistrate Judge Thomas Ball’s vehicle. The Morris County arrest likely would have been a violation of her diversion agreement in Coffey County. But court records indicate prosecutors in Coffey County didn’t know about the Morris County case. And the earlier Coffey County DUI was not disclosed to the public in Morris County, where she was standing for reelectio


It’s unclear what happened next. The case does not exist in the state’s court records system, and no follow-up articles appear in any publicly available newspaper archives. Marek did not immediately respond to questions sent to the 2nd District. In Coffey County, Viar, who went by Laura E. Allen at the time, 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.