House Speaker Thom Tillis says that Rep. Stephen LaRoque made “the right decision” in announcing his resignation from the General Assembly Wednesday.
LaRoque’s decision came just hours after Tillis had issued a statement saying that the legislative ethics committee would indeed investigate the Kinston Republican, a week after he was indicted by a federal grand jury on eight counts of criminal conduct concerning the operation of his federally-supported non-profits.
In his resignation, LaRoque denied doing anything improper and said he was proud of his work:
“I am proud of the work I have done in my non-profit corporations. We have worked hard to help people.”
The indictment came 11 months after Policy Watch’s extensive investigation by reporter Sarah Ovaska, which first raised questions about LaRoque’s management of two nonprofits that received federal funds.
Ovaska joins Chris Fitzsimon on News & Views this weekend to talk about the indictment and where the case goes from here.
For a preview of this weekend’s radio interview, click below. To better understand the background on the case, you can revisit our August 2011 series, “Public money, personal gains.”
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