But Choate said he stole the papers out of anger on behalf of the victim’s family, with whom he is close. Neither the accuser nor her family asked him to steal the papers, he said. [...]

“I feel that there’s been several articles written in this paper that negatively affect local families and businesses,” Choate said. “And I think what I did was kind of … the last straw for me over the years of reading this stuff.”

[The publishers] said Choate expressed similar sentiments in conversations with them, specifically over a story about a business that did not heed public health orders and a former sheriff involved in domestic violence incidents.