Inset: Jack LaRoche (Jacksonville Sheriff's Office). Background: The University of North Florida campus where LaRoche allegedly assaulted a student with autism (Google Maps).
A man who said he was filming content for his YouTube page allegedly chased a Florida college student with autism through a dorm and cornered him in a bathroom stall while flicking his face.
Jack LaRoche stands accused of abuse of a disabled adult, false imprisonment and giving a false name to law enforcement.
A probable cause arrest affidavit said the incident occurred on Aug. 22 on the campus of the University of North Florida. Cops met with the victim who said a man whom he did not know started following him outside his dorm. He went inside and the man, later identified as LaRoche, continued to follow him, the affidavit stated.
The victim tried to go inside a friend's room, but the friend was not home. He ran inside a bathroom and hid in a stall. The suspect went into the next stall and peeked his head over and started talking to the victim, the affidavit stated.
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."
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.