Nearly all the copies of a small-town Colorado newspaper were stolen from newspaper racks on the same day the Ouray County Plaindealer published a story about charges being filed over rapes alleged to have occurred at an underage drinking party at the police chief’s house while the chief was asleep, the owner and publisher said Friday.
Mike Wiggins vowed to get to the bottom of it, posting Thursday on X, formerly Twitter: “If you hoped to silence or intimidate us, you failed miserably. We’ll find out who did this. And another press run is imminent.”
The newspaper posted the story on social media and removed its website paywall so people could read about the felony sexual assault charges filed against three men, including a relative of the police chief, for actions that allegedly occurred at a May 2023 party in Ouray where drugs and alcohol were used, according to court records. The suspects were ages 17, 18 and 19 at the time, and the person who reported the rapes was 17, records said.
Need more people like this couple.
Meanwhile, the husband-and-wife of the Plaindealer have vowed to continue covering the case.
On X, Wiggins said those who are interested in supporting the local newspaper’s journalism can donate to a Report for America campaign that helps fund its operations.
Founded in 1877, the Plaindealer claims to be the second oldest continuously publishing newspaper on Colorado’s western slope.
The weekly newspaper covers local news in rugged Ouray County, population 4,874, just north of the ski slopes of Telluride.
Wiggins and McIntyre, both former reporters for the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, purchased the Plaindealer in 2019.
In addition to running the business, the married duo also write many of the articles that appear in the newspaper.
‘We invested in the Plaindealer because we believe every community, even small ones, deserves good journalism,’ the couple said in a 2021 interview.
‘During a time when the headlines are full of stories about newspapers purchased by hedge funds and stripped for profits, newsrooms gutted and presses ceasing to operate, we’ve invested in a weekly publication and doubled down on journalism.’
The moment I read ‘Mike Wiggins’ I was really hoping that was the police chief.
So, you print the story on the front page the next day and print double the copies. And keep going.
Make them work for it.
Um do people not realize that news is also in digital format too?
There’s also radio stations.
this is tooo tasty. did someone not realize what happens when you try and hide ‘stories’. and in Print?!?! wtf??
streeeiisaaand where are you
Fuck the police. That is all
We need more Police in Schools!
Ashton Whittington, Gabriel Trujillo and Nathan Dieffenderffer have been arrested for suspected sexual assault on a warrant from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
That last one sounds like the fakest name I’ve ever heard.
I might be misremembering, but from my reading about this yesterday that one is the police chief’s son.
Stepson.
Hmmmm, I’m sure these things aren’t connected in any way, shape or form /s
Ain’t nothing but a cover-up, babbayy.
Them Pigs in Colorado going, craaazzah
Let’s Barbara Streisand the fuck out of this!
By Thursday evening, someone had returned a garbage bag full of newspapers to the Plaindealer
That’s really weird. Why bother returning them? That doesn’t fix things, because the nature of news means they’re not just going to refill the newsstands with day old papers, they’re selling the next edition. Leaving thousands of papers on their doorstep just gives them a new problem.
The thief isn’t just a coward, but also an idiot.
It’s a weekly paper, so it’s on sale for an entire week.
They stole print newspapers to hide a story? Were the perpetrators spotted wearing onions on their belts and chanting 23 skidoo?
No they found the guy who stole the newspapers
admitted he took the newspapers because of the front page story
Plaindealer is not disclosing Choate’s relationship to the sexual assault case.
The theft was not connected in any way to the three defendants in the case, their families or the Ouray Police Department.
I’m not a Sherlock, but if you read those two together, sounds like the victim’s (who was never named) relative (father?) stole the newspapers?
Otherwise they wouldn’t have the sentence about not disclosing
@MicroWave streisand effect save me
So the victim woke up, couldn’t find her clothes and left with police chiefs sweatshirt in mid May. Goes to hospital and they call Sheriff obviously, but he can’t investigate because he hired the police chief and was former chief and his investigator also had worked for the police chief. So obviously they have to involve CBI (state investigator)
May gang rape… Then “CBI agents interviewed suspects in July”… Then… “July 20, agents used a search warrant to seize evidence from the police chief’s house”… To “were all arrested on warrants for suspected felony sexual assault in December. All have posted bail and been released from jail”
Oh and the police chief knew for month about the investigation. CBI took two months to even question suspects or collect evidence… Another five months to charge anyone.
They left freaking bite marks on the girl.
The DNA tests on samples collected during the hospital sexual assault exam matched Trujillo – in a vaginal sample – and Dieffenderffer – from a bite mark.
