An Augusta County sheriff’s deputy entered an Alford plea to a misdemeanor assault and battery charge on Thursday, resolving his legal exposure from a 2023 arrest of a Gordonsville man that ended up putting the arrested subject in the hospital.
Sgt. William Mikolay, who has been on paid administrative leave for the past 14 months, had also faced a felony charge for malicious wounding in the Sept. 29, 2023, arrest of Adam Ryan Martin, but that charge was dropped in a hearing on Thursday in Albemarle County Circuit Court.
With the Alford plea, the misdemeanor charge against Mikolay will be taken under advisement for a period of 12 months, and the charge will be dismissed at the conclusion of that period, pending compliance with court conditions.
Augusta County Sheriff Donald Smith, who sent an email to employees after Mikolay’s arrest on the charges on Nov. 23, 2023, indicating that he supported Mikolay “110%,” and that he wanted “our office to stick together throughout this difficult situation,” confirmed in a statement released on Thursday that Mikolay “remains on paid administrative leave, as our internal investigation into the incident is ongoing.”
An unattributed line at the end of a press release from the Augusta County Sheriff’s Office distributed to the local media on Thursday said the agency “appreciates the community’s patience and understanding as we ensure a thorough and fair review of this incident.”
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Martin and a second person, identified in court documents as Tina Lang, both suffered injuries during the arrest, which came after a pursuit that began in Augusta County at approximately 3:30 a.m. the morning of Sept. 29, 2023.
According to a published report in AFP in 2023 that was based on information obtained from the sheriff’s office, an unnamed deputy on routine patrol spotted a black Infinity that matched the description of a vehicle that had been involved in multiple pursuits with the Virginia State Police and other law enforcement agencies over the preceding past several weeks.
The deputy ran the registration of the vehicle, and the tags did not match the vehicle type, so an attempt was made to get the driver to stop the vehicle, but Martin, the driver, refused to stop.
Martin would eventually drive the vehicle onto Interstate 64 apparently headed to Albemarle County, so the Augusta County deputy in pursuit alerted Albemarle County Police that Martin was coming their way.
Officers there deployed tired deflation devices in an effort to stop the vehicle, and Martin, after driving over the deflation devices and losing his tires, continued on Dudley Mountain Road at reduced speeds, eventually losing control and crashing into an embankment at the intersection with Red Hill Road.
According to the 2023 AFP report, Martin exited the vehicle after the crash and ran away on foot, with an Augusta County deputy in pursuit.
When the deputy got within reach of the suspect, according to the report, Martin turned on the deputy and took a fighting stance, leading to a physical altercation that ended with Martin being taken into custody.
The reporting from 2023 ended with the note that Martin had to be transported to the University of Virginia Medical Center and was hospitalized there for treatment of his injuries, which were not detailed to us at the time, but we learned today, from court documents, that Martin was in ICU on a ventilator.
Lang, according to court testimony, was punched in the eye and suffered rib injuries from kicks that she said were delivered by Mikolay.
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Chris Graham
