A Ridgway man has been arrested on allegations he sexually assaulted a woman and threatened her with a shotgun at her home on Log Hill Mesa last week.
A Ridgway man has been arrested on allegations he sexually assaulted a woman and threatened her with a shotgun at her home on Log Hill Mesa last week.
Jeffrey Michael Inmon, 46, was arrested on July 29 on suspicion of felony counts of sexual assault, first-degree burglary, second-degree assault and menacing and a misdemeanor count of obstruction of telephone or telegraph service.
The accuser, a woman known to Inmon, reported the allegations to the Ridgway Marshal’s Office after running away from him on July 29. She said she fled her home through the back door and flagged down a passing motorist while Inmon was retrieving and loading a shotgun from his van.
The woman said Inmon forcibly entered her residence around 9:30 a.m. after she said he could not come in and needed to leave, according to an affidavit from the Ouray County Sheriff’s Office.
In response, Inmon “continued to get angrier and angrier,” the affidavit read. She reported she was able to message a friend for help before Inmon assaulted her and took her phone.
The woman said Inmon then forced her into her bedroom and sexually assaulted her.
She said she told him she had the cops coming, which was untrue at the time. At this point “he got frustrated and went out to his van. He took out a shotgun and loaded bullets into it,” the affidavit read.
When he went to grab the shotgun, she said, he also took all of her electronic devices — a laptop, phone and smartwatch — which she alleged he did to keep her from calling for help. She said she sent the original message for help from the laptop.
She told investigators she decided to flee when she saw him load the shotgun.
During an interview with investigators, the woman reported Inmon had also assaulted her three weeks earlier, according to the affidavit. She described an attempted sexual assault in which she forcibly resisted until Inmon “got tired and finally quit.” She told investigators he punched her in the stomach and in the head, giving her a black eye. The woman didn’t report the incident at the time.
She said Imon had threatened suicide during that event, the incident on July 29 and several other times in the past.
Evidence from the alleged assault on July 29 was collected through a sexual assault nurse exam at Montrose Regional Health.
Inmon was arrested by the Ridgway Marshal’s Office in front of a restaurant on U.S. Highway 550 in Ridgway, where his vehicle was located. The pump action wood stocked shotgun described by the accuser was “plainly visible through the open windows of the van,” according to the affidavit.
At the Ridgway Marshal’s Office, investigators asked Inmon if had been at the woman’s residence that morning to pick up his dog, which he affirmed. He declined to answer any further questions about what else happened at the address, according to the affidavit. He was then booked at the Montrose County Jail, where he remained as of Wednesday on a $25,000 cash-only bond.
Prosecutors are expected to formally file charges against him this week.
Lia Salvatierra is a journalist with Report for America, a service program that helps boost underserved areas with more reporting resources.