Newspapers stolen after reporting on rape investigation at police chief's home
A Colorado man was cited after more than 200 newspapers were stolen from distribution boxes, preventing people from purchasing the Ouray County Plaindealer the day it published a front-page story about a sexual assault investigation at the home of the city's police chief Ouray.
The Plaindealer said in one note to readers Thursday that all newspaper boxes in the city of Ouray and all but one in the city of Ridgway had been emptied after the final edition of the weekly newspaper was distributed.
“Whoever did this does not understand that stealing newspapers does not stop a story,” the note said.
The Plain dealer is active since 1877 and reporting on news in mountainous Ouray County, about 165 miles southwest of Colorado Springs, and with a population of just over 5,000.
The newspaper, which sells for $1, said Thursday that someone had removed all the newspapers from a dozen distribution boxes.
“From what we know so far, it appears this individual turned in four quarters and grabbed all the papers from these racks,” the newspaper said. “It's pretty clear that someone didn't want the community to read the news this week.”
The stolen edition is displayed a front page story about the arrests of three people after a 17-year-old girl said she was raped at least three times by two different people at the Ouray police chief's home in May 2023.
The police chief and others were at home and asleep during the attacks, the newspaper reported. The chief, Jeff Wood, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday.
The three people arrested were aged 17, 18 and 19 at the time of the attacks, and one of them is the stepson of the police chief, The Plaindealer reported.
The article did not name the accuser, who is now 18, but did include her description of what happened that night, based on information from an arrest affidavit.
Ouray County Sheriff's Office said in a statement On Friday, he reported that the suspect in the newspaper theft “was not a member or family member of local law enforcement and was not associated with the defendants in the recently reported assault.”
The reported assaults are being investigated by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation “to eliminate any perception of bias and to be above reproach,” the sheriff's office said.
The city of Ouray said so in a statement Thursday that the police department was “not involved in the investigation” of the assaults and that no personnel investigation was conducted in the department.
The sheriff's office did not name the newspaper theft suspect in its statement, but The Plain Dealer said the office cited Paul Choate, 41, on suspicion of petit larceny.
Mr. Choate, a local restaurant owner, returned the stolen newspapers to The Plaindealer's office Thursday evening with an apology, the newspaper said.
He admitted to stealing the newspapers because of the front page story. The Plaindealer reported this. Mr. Choate could not be reached for comment on Sunday.
“The Plaindealer is not disclosing Choate's relationship to the sexual assault case,” the newspaper said. “The theft was in no way related to the three defendants in the case, their families or the Ouray Police Department.”
The Plaindealer said it reprinted 250 copies of the edition before Mr. Choate returned the papers.
After The Plaindealer announced the theft, it received more than $2,000 in donations.