GREENVILLE — Assistant U.S. Attorney Dennis Duffy boiled down his case in three parts: “theft, ECDC and concealment.”
The necessity of simplifying the complex accusations against former state Rep. Stephen LaRoque was repeatedly made clear by Duffy and LaRoque attorney Joe Cheshire in their opening arguments Monday.
Organizing the East Carolina Development Company in 1997, LaRoque as executive director shepherded loans from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to high-risk small business borrowers.
“He proved to be very adept at this,” Duffy said.
Duffy said the organization gave out loans at a fast clip, but loans started slowing down around the time ECDC’s board of directors essentially became LaRoque, his wife and his brother. During that time, the amount of money the group had to lend was building up.
The prosecution contends the former lawmaker, in addition to his $150,000 salary, made a $150,000 loan to allow his wife to purchase an ice rink in Greenville, $50,000 to replace a Zamboni, $50,000 to buy a rental property in his name for his stepdaughter to live in and $58,000 to his lawyer representing him in a defamation suit regarding statements he was stealing from ECDC.
“It’s an easy concept, theft — just taking what doesn’t belong to you,” Duffy said.
The prosecutor contended a contract signed by LaRoque in 2009 but backdated to 1997, outlined his compensation and to 3 percent of the amount of the loans.
Duffy said LaRoque attempted to hide his dealings by altering documents like tax records and laundering the money.
During his remarks to the jury, Duffy gestured to the board he wrote the three bullet points on, and at one point strode across the room and looked directly at LaRoque while explaining his alleged crimes.
Cheshire, starting off soft but voice rising in volume and force, matched Duffy’s stagecraft as he defended his client. He said the compensation was agreed to in 1997 and that he would provide witnesses to back that point, explaining LaRoque left the money in the organization’s coffers for years as part of fiscally prudent budgeting.
“I’m not sure where the concept comes from that you can steal your own money,” Cheshire said.
Cheshire stated he would provide evidence to show the USDA regulators knew everything about what was going on at ECDC, that LaRoque was transparent in his dealings.
The reason for charges was regulators were scared and embarrassed, feeling the need to act after a report from N.C. Policy Watch that he characterized as a political hit job, filled with “mischaracterizations and half-truths” because LaRoque was “despised by liberals and their allies.”
The court adjourned slightly after 3 p.m.
The jury, selected Monday morning, is composed of six white women, four white men, one black man and one black woman. Two white men and one white woman serve as alternates.
The jury went through several rounds of selections and dismissals before the final line-up. Most were sent off without a public reason given, but Judge Malcolm Howard dismissed one woman because she followed the pretrial coverage on Tumblr blogs.
One man got the boot because he dealt with LaRoque in the General Assembly regarding economic development, and another was sent off because he said his wife is a witness in the proceedings.
Howard kept the process light as it moved along, like needling a Clemson graduate for the poor showing of the Tiger basketball team this past season. He also explained jurors should be prepared for a complex and complicated federal regulatory process with a bovine anecdote.
“You can’t feed your cow certain types of legumes certain times of the year — that might be a crime, I don’t know,” Howard said.
Court resumes at 9 a.m. today.
Wes Wolfe can be reached at 252-559-1075 or wes.wolfe@kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter @WolfeReports.