After an argument with a clerk at a local gas station, the owner and publisher of the Aspen Daily News received a summons early Saturday for trespassing after the two allegedly argued about the tax on buying a newspaper.
The Aspen Times reports that Dave Danforth refused to leave the Locals Corner store around 2 a.m. when asked repeatedly by the worker and police that responded to a call by the clerk.
Danforth, 60, told the Times Sunday that he made a comment to the clerk to the effect of, “Have you fixed your tax problem?” The publisher and store officials allegedly had a long-running feud about whether a tax was being charged on the sales of newspapers, and wasn’t charged tax when he bought a copy of The New York Times, police said.
The clerk became angered, and called the police. Danforth refused to leave. “I said, ‘Well, I'm not going anywhere. I want to see how this plays out,’” he told the Times, and while downplaying his actions, made it clear he wasn’t pleased by the way the police handled the situation.
“I was arrested after reaching for my cell phone. The officer didn't want me to do that,” he told the Times. “I have long thought, and have written numerous editorials in the Daily News, that when police officers have a choice to diffuse or escalate an incident, they make the wrong judgment. That's exactly what happened here.” Danforth said.
Officer Jeff Fain, he added, “just had to whip out those handcuffs. We'll see what happens in court.”
Danforth has a municipal court date on Oct. 27.
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