A Ridgway man was cited this morning on suspicion of petty theft in connection with the theft of more than 200 printed copies of this week’s Ouray County Plaindealer.

The Ouray County Sheriff’s Office cited Paul Choate, 41, who admitted to stealing the newspapers early Thursday morning. He returned them to the Plaindealer office Thursday night with an apology.

Copies of this week’s edition, which featured a front page story detailing an alleged sexual assault reported to have occurred at the home of the Ouray police chief, were stolen from 12 racks in Ridgway and Ouray.

Investigators were able to use video surveillance and several leads to conduct the investigation. The evidence showed Choate took the newspapers early Thursday morning after the new edition had been distributed to vending racks.

Choate, who owns Kate’s Place restaurant in Ridgway, admitted he took the newspapers because of the front page story. The Plaindealer reprinted 250 copies of this week’s edition before Choate returned the stolen copies.

The reprinted copies were redistributed to racks Friday morning.

The 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. The citation is a court summons and does not include an affidavit with details about the investigation, which was conducted by the Sheriff’s Office and the Ridgway Marshal’s Office. A law enforcement incident report will not be available until next week.