GREENVILLE — The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina is petitioning Senior U.S. District Judge Malcolm J. Howard for a two-week extension for a hearing regarding a possible retrial of former N.C. Rep. Stephen LaRoque.
Earlier this week, Howard announced a hearing would be held to consider a new trial; he set that hearing date for Thursday, Sept. 12 with the prosecution — the U.S. Attorney’s Office — response to the announcement due by Monday.
However, Assistant U.S. Attorney Dennis Duffy, in an unopposed motion to the judge, said his office needed more time to prepare for the response. Duffy’s office is asking for the hearing to be moved back to Sept. 26, with the response due on Sept. 23.
“The Government hereby requests a two-week extension of the deadline for filing its response to the renewed motion for a new trial and a two-week continuance of the hearing in this matter in order to allow the Government time to fully prepare a response to the Defendant’s motion,” Duffy stated in his motion. “(I have had) numerous work-related scheduling conflicts during the past week which have prevented the Government from finalizing its response.”
Duffy stated he had met with LaRoque’s defense team and that it consented to the motion for additional time.
LaRoque was convicted on June 7 on 12 counts of stealing money from his nonprofits. Ten counts stood after Howard set aside the verdict on two tax fraud convictions because of juror misconduct. He was set to be sentenced on Tuesday before it came to light that one of the jurors may have sullied the verdict by conducting research outside the courtroom.
Howard had not made a decision on the motion as of press time on Friday.