Suspect cited for allegedly stealing small-town Colorado newspaper reporting on alleged rape at police chief's home

A Colorado man has been cited on suspicion of petty theft in connection with the mysterious disappearance of over 200 copies of the Ouray County Plaindealer. The local newspaper, which circulates in the remote southwestern area of the state, saw its stacks disappear after running a front page story about alleged rapes committed by the then-sleeping police chief's stepson and his friends at their family home. 

Paul Choate, 41, admitted to making off with the stacks, though the Plaindealer made it clear that he was "not connected in any way to the three defendants in the case, their families or the Ouray Police Department." 

In a Facebook post, Choate wrote, “I want the public to know that I was the culprit of the Ouray Plaindealer theft. I turned myself in the Sheriff's office and returned the paper to the Plaindealer. I offered to compensate for any damages I caused.” 

According to the outlet, coin-operated newspaper racks were stocked on the night of January 17, as they are every Wednesday, however the following morning it was revealed that nearly all of them had been emptied.  

Plaindealer co-publisher Erin McIntyre said it appeared as though someone had inserted four quarters, the price of one paper, and proceeded to instead nab the entire stack. 

The front-page story, which she wrote, had been published online before it went to print. It detailed allegations set forth by an unnamed minor who said she had been raped multiple times by Ouray Police Chief Jeff Wood's stepson, Nate Dieffenderffer and his friends in May 2023. The trio were arrested in December on felony sexual assault warrants, though Wood himself was not found to be connected to the incident. 

McIntyre's husband and co-publisher Mike Wiggins slammed the thief in a post on X, saying, "if you hoped to silence or intimidate us, you failed miserably." 

"Another press run is imminent," he added.  

Sure enough, the paper was redistributed, with the same front-page story.

"Anyone who attempts to interfere with our ability to distribute news is going to have their efforts backfire on them," Wiggins and McIntyre wrote in a newsletter. "We may be a small newspaper, but we're going to stand up for ourselves."