By Efren Acevedo
Wheat Ridge High School newspaper editor-in-chief Joe Vigil was held libel after misquoting a person in one of his most recent news stories.
In the March online issue of The Haystack, Vigil wrote a story on the new cricket team. Vigil interviewed athletic director Nick DeSimone. When Vigil asked Desimone if he thought the new cricket team was a great idea, Desimone responded, “Yes, this is great for the school.” Due to the lack of taking notes, Vigil typed “No, this is a horrible idea.” According to the Newspaper Police Agency (NPPA), Mr.Vigil has also committed this careless crime in the last two issues of The Haystack.
Vigil’s indictment is set for April 4.
Also in the cricket story Vigil included details such as: DeSimone is one of the worst athletic directors ever and that Desimone bribes the referees. Since then DeSimone has been receiving letters of angry parents. The subsequent investigation turned out that the bribery was false and that the story was libelist. In another story Vigil falsely accused fellow student Colin Mulligan of being a sex offender. Vigil looks like he has a long time ahead of him.
Vigil has been on staff for three years. His staff writers support Vigil in everything he does. There is a support rally organized by his staff members that is supposed to be held on his court date outside the court on April 5 at 2p.m. However, there is one staff member that is not a supporter, and that member is Efren Acevedo.
It is said Vigil also threatened to beat up his staff writer Efren Acevedo if he refused to go along with him. In a brief interview with Acevedo, he said, “I was scared because he was sweatin’ on me everyday, you know what I mean, homie? He would beat me up twice a week.”
The NPPA has not released any information on how much time Vigil will spend in prison. “We are glad that we can remove dirtbags like Joe Vigil. It’s people like him that we need off the streets,” said the leader of the NPPA Ned Flanderson. All of this just because Vigil was too lazy to do things the right way. “This is one of the worst crimes committed since the O.J. Simpson murder case,” said Flanderson.
