Three Morehead State University students have been charged with allegedly burning about 7,000 copies of the student newspaper to halt appearance of a story about an alleged sexual assault, according to trailblazeronline.net, the student paper’s Web site, and a university news release.

University police brought charges of third degree criminal mischief against: Danielle Brown, 22; Andrea Sharp, 22; and Jennie Williams, 20, all of Morehead.

The Trail Blazer reported that university police were investigating a report of criminal mischief at the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity house after the copies of The Trail Blazer were reported as stolen.

The newspapers were taken from 31 on-campus and 15 off-campus sites.

The Trail Blazer reported that an unknown caller phoned the paper’s office on Sept. 22.

The caller was upset about an article on an alleged off-campus sexual assault involving a Morehead State student on Sept. 18.

“The caller said if The Trail Blazer did not retract the story, the papers would be stolen and destroyed,” the paper reported in a story by its editor, Ashley Sorrell.

Sorrell reported that Trail Blazer staff members “gathered evidence that the papers were burned at the off-campus fraternity house.”

Morehead city police are still investigating the alleged off-campus sexual assault.