Hours after the Ouray County Plaindealer in southwest Colorado published a story detailing the alleged violent sexual assault of a teenage girl at the Ouray police chief’s house, someone stole hundreds of copies out of nearly every newspaper rack across the county, publishers say.
The front-page story, written by co-publisher Erin McIntyre, broke the news that three men were arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl multiple times during a late-night party at the home of Ouray Police Chief Jeff Wood in May.
“Someone didn’t like this edition of the (Plaindealer,)” co-publisher Mike Wiggins wrote on X Thursday. “Guess which article. So they stole nearly every newspaper out of our racks in Ouray County. If you hoped to silence or intimidate us, you failed miserably. We’ll find out who did this. And another press run is imminent.”
Gabriel Trujillo, 20, Ashton Whittington, 18, and a third man were arrested on suspicion of sexual assault, according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
The agency did not name the third man because he was a juvenile at the time of the incident. Trujillo was 19 at the time of the assault.
According to the Plaindealer, the girl told investigators she was raped at least three times after passing out at the party. She screamed and fought back while people, including Wood, were asleep in the home.
Someone knocked on the bathroom door during one of the assaults, the girl told investigators, causing one of the suspects to restrain her and try to cover her mouth.
Evidence collected through a sexual assault examination matched Trujillo and the third suspect, according to the Plaindealer. Trujillo told investigators the girl was a “pathological liar” and “crazy” but later admitted to having sex with her, according to the Plaindealer.
Arrest warrants in the case have been sealed, according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
All three suspects have posted bail and been released from jail, according to the Plaindealer.
McIntyre and Wiggins posted a photo of an empty newspaper rack on the Plaindealer’s Facebook page just before noon Thursday and wrote that someone cleared out most of the newspaper racks in the county sometime between Wednesday night and early Thursday morning.
In a newsletter published Thursday night, McIntyre said all but one of the Plaindealer’s newspaper racks were emptied.
“From what we know so far, it seems this person put in four quarters and took all the papers at these racks,” McIntyre wrote. “It’s pretty clear that someone didn’t want the community to read the news this week.”
McIntyre and Wiggins worked with the printing press, run by the Montrose Daily Press, to print another run of the weekly paper on Thursday night.
“Whoever did this does not understand that stealing newspapers doesn’t stop a story,” McIntyre wrote. “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. If you meant to intimidate us, you just strengthened our resolve.”