Ouray city officials placed Police Chief Jeff Wood on paid administrative leave Monday, 11 days after allegations became public that a 17-year-old girl was raped by his stepson and two others at his house while he slept.
City leaders have known about the allegations since July, when Wood found out and notified them, according to a news release.
But the city did not address the allegations until Jan. 18, after the Ouray County Plaindealer published a story that broke the news of a violent sexual assault that occurred at Wood’s home in May.
Hours after the Plaindealer distributed newspapers to racks across the county, a Ridgway man stole nearly every copy, garnering national headlines as co-publishers Erin McIntyre and Mike Wiggins reprinted and redistributed the paper the following day.
The story detailed allegations that three men — teenagers at the time — repeatedly raped a 17-year-old girl at Wood’s house during a late-night party while he was asleep in the home.
Two of the suspects were identified by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation as 20-year-old Gabriel Trujillo and 20-year-old Ashton Whittington. A third suspect was not identified by the agency because they were a minor at the time of the assault.
Wood has not commented on the case publicly, and on Jan. 18 city officials said there were no personnel investigations underway at the Ouray Police Department regarding the case.
The city announced Wood’s leave in a news release Monday afternoon.
“This administrative leave is pending the outcome of the criminal proceedings of the alleged rape involving the Chief’s stepson at the Chief’s personal residence,” city leaders wrote. The news release did not identify Wood’s stepson by name.
The city named Sgt. Gary Ray acting police chief.
The man who stole copies of the Plaindealer later returned them and was cited for theft by the Ouray County Sheriff’s Office. He is not connected to the police department or suspects in the case. The man posted on social media that his motivation in stealing the newspapers was to protect the victim in the case.
But an Ouray County Sheriff’s Office incident report details the man’s conversations with McIntyre and Wiggins after the theft, in which he apologized and offered to compensate them but also complained about previous coverage, including stories about the former sheriff’s drunken driving arrest and a local taco restaurant’s intestinal parasite outbreak.
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