{"id":29639,"date":"2024-01-19T22:01:51","date_gmt":"2024-01-19T22:01:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/hundreds-of-ouray-newspaper-editions-covering-alleged-rape-at-police-chiefs-home-stolen-from-racks\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T07:00:41","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:00:41","slug":"hundreds-of-ouray-newspaper-editions-covering-alleged-rape-at-police-chiefs-home-stolen-from-racks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/hundreds-of-ouray-newspaper-editions-covering-alleged-rape-at-police-chiefs-home-stolen-from-racks\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds of Ouray newspaper editions covering alleged rape at police chief\u2019s home stolen from racks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Ouray
Ouray County Plaindealer Co-Publisher Mike Wiggins restocks one the newspaper\u2019s distribution racks Friday morning after 12 of them were emptied the night before, likely by someone who wanted to suppress distribution of the paper\u2019s front-page story. (Courtesy of the Ouray County Plaindealer)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The latest edition of the Ouray County Plaindealer<\/em> hits coin-operated newspaper racks every Thursday morning. The paper\u2019s publishers still stock the racks because, their readers tell them, buying the newspaper is like a \u201clittle treat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou put in four quarters and you feel like you won the lottery,\u201d Co-Publisher Erin McIntyre said.<\/p>\n

The papers were stocked late Wednesday night, but readers discovered Thursday morning that a dozen of the Plaindealer\u2019<\/em>s racks in the towns of Ouray and Ridgway \u2013 nearly all of them in Ouray County \u2013 had been mysteriously emptied during the night.<\/p>\n

They were angry.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey (readers) expect it to be there first thing on Thursday morning, and it absolutely was not there and they were not happy about it,\u201d McIntyre said.<\/p>\n

The motive for the crime? The publishers can\u2019t draw any certain conclusions. But it may have had something to do with the paper\u2019s lead story.<\/p>\n

\u201cGirl: Rapes occurred at chief\u2019s house,\u201d the front-page, above-the-fold headline read.<\/p>\n

McIntyre wrote the story, which detailed allegations made by an unnamed minor who said she was raped multiple times in the home of Ouray Police Chief Jeff Wood. The girl identified Wood\u2019s stepson, Nate Dieffenderffer, as one of three young men present at a May 14, 2023, party when the alleged sexual assaults occurred as \u201cothers slept upstairs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dieffenderffer and two other suspects, Gabriel Trujillo and Ashton Whittington, were arrested in December on warrants for suspected felony sexual assault, the Plaindealer <\/em>reported.<\/p>\n

The story was posted online Wednesday and was supposed to come out in print Thursday. In a newsletter sent Thursday to subscribers, McIntyre said it appeared someone inserted a dollar\u2019s worth of quarters \u2013 the price of a single paper \u2013 and wiped out every rack in Ouray and Ridgway. They spared one rack. She estimated more than 200 newspapers were stolen.<\/p>\n

McIntyre said Friday that the Ouray County Sheriff\u2019s Office is investigating the incident and does have a suspect. Investigators are using video surveillance footage, she said, and a garbage bag full of newspapers was returned to the office Thursday night. McIntyre was told that a suspect planned to turn themselves in, although an deputy at the Sheriff\u2019s Office was unable to confirm details Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have no reason to believe that any of the defendants in this case or their families or the Ouray Police Department are involved in the theft of our newspapers,\u201d McIntyre said.<\/p>\n

Wood did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

By Friday morning, McIntyre and her husband, Co-Publisher Mike Wiggins, had restocked the racks with reprinted editions of the paper.<\/p>\n

In response to the attempt to inhibit access to the news, the publishers also removed the paywall from the story.<\/p>\n

It can be read at bit.ly\/47GycXd<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As word of the theft spread Thursday, journalists around the state spoke up on X, formerly known as Twitter, and amplified the story. The host of Next with Kyle Clark on 9 News recommended Thursday night that viewers read the story \u201cif for no other reason, than because somebody doesn\u2019t want you to see it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

McIntyre and Wiggins purchased the Plaindealer<\/em> in 2019. Ouray County has a population just over 5,000, and McIntyre said the paper\u2019s circulation is about 1,500 print editions and 1,000 e-editions. She and Wiggins make up two-thirds of the paper\u2019s full-time staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey messed with the wrong newspaper publishers,\u201d she said. \u201c\u2026 We write stories that inspire empathy, we write stories about things going on here, but we also are going to write the tough stories, and I know that someone\u2019s going to be mad at me every week \u2013 and that is OK.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, she said, it was \u201ca huge mistake\u201d to try to hide this story from the Plaindealer\u2019s <\/em>readers.<\/p>\n

Jeffrey Roberts, executive director of the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition, said stealing the papers was not only ineffective, but amplified an important story.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo think that stealing the newspapers from the rack is going to prevent people from knowing that is kind of silly in 2024,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A 2022 statute <\/a>allows for the assessment of a civil penalty against anyone who interferes with the \u201clawful distribution of newspapers.\u201d The offender could be fined up to $2,500. The publishers do intend to press charges if a suspect is apprehended.<\/p>\n

It is a small punishment for a materially minor, but symbolically major offense.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout the Ouray County Plaindealer<\/em> and Erin and Mike doing what they do at that newspaper, the community wouldn\u2019t know about this,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cIt just is so important that we have journalism and good journalism in every community. And this, to me, it just points it out even more.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"In
In an act of defiance, a reader printed copies of the Ouray County Plaindealer\u2019s e-edition and taped them to racks after all the paper\u2019s print editions were stolen, likely by someone hoping to suppress the spread of its front-page story. (Courtesy of the Ouray County Plaindealer)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The community\u2019s hunger for news is voracious, as McIntyre described it, and the outcry after the crime was swift.<\/p>\n

As she and Wiggins restocked racks, locals cheered at them from passing cars and readers excitedly grabbed copies. Although the reprint was in some respects unnecessary and certainly costly, the publishers said that it sends a message.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou cannot stop the presses. And we\u2019re going to print more,\u201d McIntyre said. \u201cI dare them to do it again. I dare them. Go ahead. I will keep printing. We\u2019re not going to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

rschafir@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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