Sheroan said the newspaper is investigating how the mistake made it into print and will take appropriate actions immediately. Staff at the newspaper originally thought a word had simply been dropped from the sentence, but now they believe it was a production error, the result of "a failure to follow established procedures," Sheroan said.



The online version of the story has removed the quote entirely. At the top of the page, the paper wrote the following retraction: "This story - as it appeared in print - contained a major error and misquoted Sheriff John Ward. The version here has been corrected. The newspaper apologizes to the sheriff and other law-enforcement officers offended by its typographical mistake. - Ben Sheroan, editor." Sheroan also published an apology on the paper's Facebook page and through a release to media.