Inset: Jack LaRoche (Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office). Background: The University of North Florida campus, where LaRoche is accused of assaulting a student with autism (Google Maps).
A man who allegedly claimed he was creating material for his YouTube channel is accused of pursuing a Florida college student with autism through a residence hall, trapping him in a bathroom stall and flicking him in the face.
Jack LaRoche is facing charges including abuse of a disabled adult, false imprisonment and providing a false name to law enforcement.
According to a probable cause arrest affidavit, the incident happened Aug. 22 at the University of North Florida campus. Police said they spoke with the victim, who reported that an unknown man began following him outside his dormitory. When the student went inside, the man — later identified as LaRoche — allegedly continued trailing him, the affidavit said.
The student attempted to enter a friend’s room, but the friend was not there, investigators wrote. He then ran into a bathroom and hid inside a stall. LaRoche allegedly entered the adjacent stall, looked over the partition and began speaking to the victim, according to the affidavit.
LaRoche allegedly entered the stall with the victim and began “flicking” the victim in the face, causing his glasses to fall off. LaRoche then demanded the victim set a timer on his phone for 10 minutes, cops said. He allegedly told the victim to stay in the stall until the timer went off, and if he left before then, he would “come back and get you.”
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The victim did not leave the bathroom until after the clock went off because he was “too afraid to leave due to the suspect’s statements,” cops wrote. He then drove to the police station to report the incident.
Cops spotted LaRoche walking on campus. He allegedly said his name was “Jack Jones” and he was a student at the school, although he was unable to name his dorm. He was taken into custody and the victim identified LaRoche as the man who assaulted him, cops said.
LaRoche eventually gave cops his real name and said he was on campus to shoot videos for YouTube and was just “f—ing around.” He denied assaulting the victim. He was taken to the Duval County Jail on a bond of about $22,500. His next court date is set for Sept. 14.
The campus newspaper, the UNF Spinnaker, reported LaRoche is not a student at the school.
The post Man chased college student with autism through dorm, followed him into bathroom and repeatedly flicked his face while making video for YouTube: Cops first appeared on Law & Crime.