Judge who approved raid on Kansas newspaper has history of DUI arrests

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

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

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.

Viar’s DUI history could face scrutiny because the warrant she approved
for the controversial raid came in response to the Marion County Record
digging into the DUI history of restaurant owner Kari Newell. The Viar-
authorized raid came after Newell complained about the newspaper’s
investigation into her criminal background.

Marion County Attorney Joel Ensey said Wednesday that the warrant was
ordered with “insufficient evidence” to establish a connection between the
materials seized and the alleged crime.

It’s unclear whether a judicial nominating commission that selected Viar
for the magistrate position knew about her arrests and diversion. Members
of the commission did not return calls from Eagle and Kansas City Star
reporters. She would have been required to disclose both arrests in her
application.

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 reelection.

Because of Ball’s closeness to the case, all of the 8th District’s judges
recused themselves from handling Viar’s second DUI case and a special
prosecutor — Wabaunsee County Attorney Norbert Marek Jr., who was later
appointed by former Gov. Sam Brownback as 6th District judge — was
assigned to handle the criminal prosecution, according to a report by
WIBW.

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 6th 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.

She was never sanctioned by the state’s attorney discipline board and won
reelection multiple times as a Republican candidate for Morris County
attorney.

The Coffey County sheriff’s deputy who made the arrest, Eric L. Smith, now
serves in the Kansas Legislature as a state representative for the area.
The court records indicate he also saw prescription drugs in the car.

Smith told The Eagle in a phone interview Monday that he remembers the
arrest but does not recall specific details.

“I couldn’t tell you the details without looking at the report,” Smith
said. “I’m not trying to blow you off, there’s just no way I would feel
comfortable giving you information on a case I barely remember.”

“It was me,” he said. “I don’t have a great recollection of it. . . . I
think I found out along the line (she was a county prosecutor in another
jurisdiction). I did know that at some point.”

The Kansas Department of Revenue’s division of administrative hearings
upheld the revocation of her driving privileges, court records show. The
31st Judicial District denied a later appeal.

Court records show she had difficulty complying with the terms of her DUI
diversion agreement. Coffey County threatened to take the case to trial
after she refused to comply with a requirement to seek an alcohol and drug
evaluation during the diversion term. The court added six months to her
diversion. It’s unclear if she ever sought the evaluation.

During the diversion, she also “refused to cooperate or communicate with”
her attorney, John E. Rapp, a Wichita lawyer who specialized in DUI cases.
The court granted Rapp’s request to withdraw as her attorney in early
2013, court records show. The Coffey County court record shows no signs
that prosecutors were aware of the second arrest.

A court clerk for the 8th District declined to provide Viar’s contact
information or to make Viar available for an interview. The clerk
forwarded The Eagle’s questions to a spokesperson for Kansas Judicial
Administration, who said she emailed them to Viar.

Viar has not responded to questions.

“Regarding your question that the judge explain why she signed the
warrant, neither the judge nor the court can comment on a pending matter
that could come before the court,” Lisa Taylor, spokesperson for the
Office of Judicial Administration, said in a statement.

The Kansas Office of Disciplinary Administration, which investigates and
disciplines lawyers, would not say whether it was made aware of any
arrests or criminal charges while Viar was a prosecutor.

“What I can disclose to you is that Judge Viar holds an active law license
and has no prior attorney discipline,” Matthew J. Vogelsberg, chief deputy
disciplinary administrator for the ODA, said.

VIAR’S BACKGROUND

Viar was Morris County’s top prosecutor from 2005, when she was appointed
to the position two years after graduating with a law degree from Washburn
University, until 2022, when she was appointed to the 8th District
magistrate position.

Gov. Laura Kelly passed over Viar in 2021 when she was one of three
nominees for an open judge position in the 8th Judicial District.

During her time as prosecutor, she worked in a dual role as city attorney
for the nearby town of Cottonwood Falls from 2015 to 2022.

In late 2022, a judicial nominating commission selected Viar to fill a
magistrate judge vacancy in Morris County after Judge Margaret White
retired. To keep the seat, she must stand for a retention vote during the
2024 general election.

If retained, she will serve a four-year term.

The other two candidates for the magistrate position were the owner of a
Council Grove dance company and a Morris County detective.

Their answers to interview questions — including criminal and civil
history — are considered confidential under Kansas Supreme Court rules. A
criminal history does not automatically disqualify candidates. But lying
on an application could be a disqualifier.

Under Kansas law, magistrate judges have only three eligibility
requirements: be a resident of the county where they preside, have a high
school diploma or equivalent, and either be a lawyer admitted to practice
in the state or able to pass an examination given by the Kansas Supreme
Court to become certified within 18 months.

Viar is one of 85 magistrate judges in Kansas. They are paid $76,000 to
more than $100,000 a year. Kansas magistrate judges don’t have the full
power and authority of full state district court judges, but they do wield
significant influence over the criminal justice system.

They can sign search warrants within their jurisdictions, such as the
Marion County case.

Under state law, they have the authority to conduct traffic trials,
cigarette or tobacco infractions or misdemeanor charges, to conduct felony
first appearance hearings and preliminary examinations of felony charges,
and to hear misdemeanor and felony arraignments.

THE RAID

Viar’s decision to approve a search warrant of the Marion County Record on
Aug. 11 has come under intense scrutiny from First Amendment advocates
across the U.S., with many calling the move unconstitutional and illegal.

On Wednesday, the Marion County prosecutor withdrew the search warrant.

Joan Meyer, a 98-year-old co-owner of the Record, died the day after the
raid, which included a search of her home and seizure of some of her
belongings. In an interview before her death, she called the raid “Hitler
tactics.”

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation took over the investigation on Monday
and is in the process of reviewing “prior steps taken and determine how
best to proceed with the case.”

Marion police Chief Gideon Cody — who was under investigation by the
Marion County Record at the time he seized their computers, cellphones and
other documents — sought the search warrant to find evidence of computer
crimes and identity theft after a complaint by Marion restaurant owner
Newell, who was seeking a liquor license for her restaurant inside the
Elgin Hotel in Marion.

Newell was upset that Record reporters used a public state database to
confirm she lost her driver’s license over a DUI.

The warrant Viar approved allowed Cody and his officers to forensically
examine “for evidentiary purposes” all of the data, images, documents and
electronic communications in the seized devices, which included one
reporter’s personal cellphone. It also included “documents and records
pertaining to Kari Newell,” the warrant says.

The warrant also authorized Marion police to search all of the Marion
County Record and its journalists’ digital communications devices and
digital storage media that wasn’t used to look into Newell, “to exclude
from seizure those which have not been involved in the identity theft.”

The Record has indicated it plans to bring a federal lawsuit against the
authorities involved in the search and seizure of the Record’s
newsgathering materials, which could be used to identify anonymous sources
and the information they provided.

Contributing: Katie Bernard, Jonathan Shorman and Judy Thomas of the
Kansas City Star

https://www.scribd.com/document/665161451/Marion-County-Record-Search-
Warrant#download&from_embed


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We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that
stupid people won't be offended.

Durham Report: The FBI has an integrity problem. It has none.

No collusion - Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III, March 2019.
Officially made Nancy Pelosi a two-time impeachment loser.

Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden
fiasco, President Trump.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.

President Trump boosted the economy, reduced illegal invasions, appointed
dozens of judges and three SCOTUS justices.

[Rick East]

>s Co


Defendant Trump's going to wish he was woke when the prison rapes and
beatings start.
Old men don't fair well in that environment.