CRIME
‘Hundreds’ Of Newspapers Stolen After Police Chief’s Stepson Accused Of Rape On Front Page
Ouray County Plaindealer
Hundreds of newspapers were allegedly stolen out of racks throughout a Colorado county after publishing a story about a teenage girl who was allegedly sexually assaulted during a party at the home of the local police chief.
The Ouray County Plaindealer on Wednesday published a story about a 17-year-old girl who was allegedly assaulted multiple times during a party with Ouray Police Chief Jeff Wood’s stepson and two others in May 2023. The girl reported the alleged assaults to the Ouray County Sheriff’s Office, and told investigators that she fought and screamed while Wood and his family were asleep upstairs.
Wood declined to comment for the Plaindealer’s story.
On Thursday, the City of Ouray said in a statement that currently, no personnel investigations are being conducted in the Ouray Police Department regarding this case.
Due to the Police chief’s residence being involved in this reported incident, the City has been monitoring the developing case since it was first reported in May 2023, the city’s statement read. The investigating agency is the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The Ouray Police Department has not been involved in the investigation and limited information has been released by CBI.
According to a press release from CBI, three suspects were arrested for the alleged assaults in December.
One suspect, who was not named due to being a juvenile, was was arrested in Kansas and was set to be extradited to Colorado on a charge of sexual assault. Gabriel Trujillo, 20, and Ashton Whittington, 18, were also arrested and each charged with sexual assault. They were booked into the Montrose County Jail, which neighbors Ouray County.
The story was intended to be front page news in this week’s Plaindealer, but a statement posted on the newspaper’s online edition claims nearly all the print copies were stolen.
I’m sorry that most of you locals who like to get your papers from the racks were not able to put your quarters in and receive your weekly news today, the statement attributed to co-publisher Erin McIntyre read. McIntyre was also the author of the article.
All of our newspaper racks in Ouray and all but one rack in Ridgway were hit by a thief who stole all the newspapers. From what we know so far, it seems this person put in four quarters and took all the papers at these racks. It’s pretty clear that someone didn’t want the community to read the news this week, the statement read.
The newspaper asked anyone with information about the thefts to contact the Montrose County Sheriff’s Office.
I’ll leave it up to you to draw your own conclusions on which story they didn’t want you to read. Whoever did this took the time to steal hundreds of newspapers around the county, to prevent you from reading the news, the statement read. Whoever did this does not understand that stealing newspapers doesn’t stop a story. We’re not going to stop doing our job, which is to shine light on important issues in our community and keep you informed. This person is not going to shut down the freedom of the press by stealing a few hundred newspapers. Our community won’t stand for it and we won’t, either.
The paper said the Montrose Daily Press was helping the Plaindealer print another batch of the papers.
If you meant to intimidate us, you just strengthened our resolve, the statement read.
TMX contributed to this article.
