A district court judge has opened public access to court records for a civil case against the former Ouray police chief, after it proceeded for almost 10 months in secret.

The woman who told investigators she was sexually assaulted at Jeff Wood’s home in Panoramic Heights in May 2023 is suing him for damages in a civil lawsuit, claiming he was responsible.

The Plaindealer has a policy of not naming individuals who accuse others of sexual assault and is not identifying the woman. This case is separate from the pending criminal case prosecuting Wood’s stepson, Nathan Dieffenderfer, and co-defendants Gabriel Trujillo and Ashton Whittington, but they have also been added as defendants in this civil suit.

The lawsuit, filed in May 2025, was immediately suppressed from public access after the woman’s attorney, Roger Sagal, filed a motion with the court arguing it needed to keep the civil case proceedings private to protect the woman.

“Plaintiff has reason to be concerned that potential threats to her privacy and safety will increase as the related criminal proceedings advance to trial where she will be called to testify regarding the assault committed against her and to repeat the traumatic details of the events that took place at (Wood’s) home,” Sagal wrote.

Until the judge agreed to unsuppress the case, all the documents, records of proceedings and previous actions were not public. Even Sagal’s motion asking the judge to suppress the case was secret.

When Sagal filed the complaint against Wood, he asked the judge to keep the case closed to the public. He alleged there were privacy and safety concerns for his client, and asked the court to keep the entire docket and all case information sealed away from public view.

Sagal said his client had been publicly harassed for her involvement in the criminal case. Last week, the mother of one of the defendants, Kristyn Trujillo, was convicted by a Ouray County jury of harassing or intimidating a victim or witness, in connection with an altercation with the accuser at the Ouray Hot Springs Pool.

Sagal opposed the Plaindealer’s request to make the case public but made no legal argument for keeping the case suppressed. Instead, he argued the woman’s privacy concerns outweighed the public’s interest in the case.

In his request to have the proceedings kept private, Sagal cited extensive coverage of the criminal cases by the Plaindealer. He also cited articles about the Plaindealer’s newspapers being stolen by Ridgway business owner Paul Choate, who held a grudge against the newspaper and committed the theft after the arrests in the criminal case were publicized in a front-page article in January 2024.

Attorney Rachael Johnson with Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press represented Plaindealer co-publisher Erin McIntyre and filed a motion with the court on Aug. 4 asking the judge to make the records and proceedings public.

Johnson argued the public has a right to access judicial records and the community is interested in why a crime may have occurred at the home of an individual tasked with protecting and serving the community. She also argued the details of the alleged crime have already been discussed in open court and are publicly available, so they are no longer private. She asked the court to consider the “considerable public interest” in the case, and argued the sealing of the entire case was not allowed by Colorado law.

Seventh Judicial Chief District Court Judge Cory Jackson allowed the Plaindealer to intervene in the case, heard arguments in a hearing Feb. 2 and vacated the order to limit public access to the case on March 11.

The now-public complaint claims that Wood was home during the alleged assault, that he had a duty to protect the woman, who was 17 years old at the time.

“In spite of his status as the highest-ranking law enforcement officer in the city of Ouray, defendant Wood permitted minors to consume alcohol on the property,” the lawsuit complaint said.

The lawsuit also claims Wood “failed to exercise reasonable care to protect (the woman) from, or to warn (her) of, dangers existing on the property and to protect her from sexual assault.”

The lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount of damages. In a response to the complaint, Wood demanded a jury trial.

In Jackson’s written ruling to unseal the case, he acknowledged that there is a presumption that court records should be open to the public. He also said details of the alleged assault have already been publicly reported, and access to the court file would not implicate the woman’s privacy or security.

“After review, the court concludes that the victim’s need for heightened security has abated since the filing for the original motion and complaint,” he wrote. “This is so because details of the underlying assault have been continuously publicly reported. As well, the only incident of alleged harassment is being prosecuted and no other incidents of harassment have been reported or disclosed.”

“While the Plaintiff argues that harassment might increase as the criminal cases get closer to trial and if this court file becomes public, it is not clear why,” the judge wrote.

“The victim’s privacy and right to remain free of harassment or intimidation remain critical interests,” Jackson wrote. “But at this point, those interests do not outweigh or overcome the presumption in favor of open proceedings.”