Stolen Newspaper Prevents Access to Story about Alleged Rape
A publication that featured an article regarding an alleged rape at the residence of a Colorado police chief has reported that the newspaper issue for that week was stolen from the racks, preventing people from purchasing the edition.
The article detailed the account of a teenage girl who claimed to have been assaulted multiple times during a late-night party involving the stepson of Ouray County's police chief and two other individuals in May. The 17-year-old victim reported the alleged assaults to authorities, stating that she screamed and fought back while Police Chief Jeff Wood and his family were asleep upstairs. Wood declined to provide a comment for the publication's story.
According to the publication, the initial case report was filed by an investigator from the Ouray County Sheriff's Office before it was referred to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. In a statement released on Thursday, officials from Ouray disclosed that they had been closely monitoring the case since May due to the involvement of Wood's residence in the alleged assault. The Ouray Police Department was not directly involved in the investigation, the statement clarified, and no internal investigations are being conducted within the department as a result of the allegations.
According to a news release from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, Wood's stepson and two other men were arrested on charges of felony sexual assault in December, as reported by the Plaindealer.
Unfortunately, the story detailing the alleged assault and the ongoing case was supposed to appear on the front page of the Plaindealer this week. However, physical copies of the newspaper were stolen from newspaper racks throughout Ouray County.
In a statement attributed to co-publisher Erin McIntyre, the Plaindealer expressed their regret to the local community for not being able to distribute the newspapers as usual. It appears that someone deliberately stole all the newspapers from the racks, preventing the community from reading the news.
The Plaindealer has requested anyone with information about the thefts to contact the Montrose County Sheriff's Office, as Montrose County borders Ouray County.
"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 paper's statement continued. "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 that it is working with the Montrose Daily Press to have another run of papers published, and said it would update readers again when those newspapers are available for distribution.
"If you meant to intimidate us, you just strengthened our resolve," the statement added.
CBS News reached out to Wood, but has not received a response.
