Trending
ELKINS -- The Randolph County Sheriff's Office has investigated a complaint filed against a deputy by a local man with autism, regarding an incident that took place during the Mountain State Forest Festival in October.
John Antolini, 27, of Buckhannon, wrote in the complaint that he attended an MSFF Craft Show event Oct. 5 at the Davis & Elkins Gym, and felt Deputy Aaron Channell spoke to him in an "intimidating fashion."
"One of the organizers of the event asked our deputy to ask the man to quit jumping in front of people with a sign," Sheriff Rob Elbon told The Inter-Mountain, in response to questions about the complaint. "They said if he wouldn't quit, they wanted him to leave."
The Sheriff's Office's Chief Deputy B.T. Sharp conducted an internal investigation regarding the complaint, and it was determined that Channell did nothing out of the ordinary or inappropriate, Elbon said.
"Deputy Channell went up to the man and told him that the organizers wanted him to stop bothering people with his sign," Elbon told The Inter-Mountain. "He told the man that they wanted him to leave if he didn't comply with their requests."
According to both Elbon and the complaint filed, Antolini left the scene immediately without incident.
"He walked out the building and nothing else was said," Elbon noted.
In the complaint, Antolini wrote the following:
"On the 5th of October, 2024, I went to Elkins with a few longtime friends for the Forest Festival. After watching the parade at Big Timber, we made our way toward the Craft Show being held on the D&E campus. We happened to walk past the Democratic Party headquarters on the way there, where I obtained a Harris/Waltz campaign sign.
"After walking past vendors at the City Park, we made it to the Craft Show," Antolini wrote. "We walked about for approximately 25 to 20 minutes with no incident. I had the sign in my possession the entire time. At one point a security guard in a D&E shirt came up to me and asked how I was doing. I recognized him from high school, so we got to chatting for a few minutes.
"It was at that time that Deputy Channell approached me and my friend group, telling me to bring the sign down or I'd be asked to leave. He was saying so in an intimidating fashion.
"My friends tried to explain that I had autism, which makes it difficult to socialize properly. Even with my autism I don't recall engaging in any disorderly behavior. Not knowing what else to do, I left with one of my friends to place the sign in my car, which was parked on Grandview Avenue. I remember being baffled by the whole experience," Antolini wrote.
Olivia Insani Perske, a friend of Antolini's, provided a witness statement:
"As we walked through the Craft Show, I had seen eyes being made toward John, who was stimming, which is a behavior exhibited by folks on the Autism Spectrum. By the time we made it halfway through the show, I had been approached by a D&E security guard, who had been asked by the director of the show to approach John and potentially ask him to leave.
"John wasn't doing anything harmful. He was existing as an autistic individual in public… The security guard knew John and checked in, telling him that people thought he could be drunk," Perske wrote. "Our group watched the parade at Big Timber, but we were certainly not drunk -- it was the middle of the day and we still had plans to go to the marching band competition late that evening.
"Once the security guard talked with us and made sure John was okay, the Randolph County police officer approached John and started confronting him about needing to 'bring it down' or that he would be asked to leave. John was not speaking loudly, he was not being aggressive, he was just being himself in public. This was extremely upsetting to John, of course, so he used the closest exit and left."
Elbon said the Randolph County Sheriff's Office takes any complaint against its deputies seriously.
"There was an internal investigation and our deputy didn't violate any policies," Elbon told The Inter-Mountain. "Everything was good and he didn't do anything out of protocol… If I had a guy who was out of line, I would deal with it quickly. I won't put up with my guys doing it and I won't put up with anyone treating my guys wrong, either."