Trial of ex-N.C. House member rescheduled for May 

RALEIGH (AP) — The federal trial of a former North Carolina House member accused of theft, money laundering and filing false tax returns has been delayed until spring.

U.S. District Judge Malcolm Howard signed an order pushing back the trial for Republican Stephen LaRoque of Kinston from February until mid-May. Attorneys for LaRoque and the government sought the delay.

Howard cited additional charges filed against LaRoque last month and the complex nature of the case in granting the delay. The trial originally had been set to begin last October, three months after the original indictment.

The updated 12-count indictment accuses LaRoque of benefiting personally from federal loan money designed to help rural communities by funneling funds to another company he owned.

 

Perdue campaign spends
$46K in final months 

RALEIGH (AP) — Former North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue’s campaign still had more than $1 million a few days before she left office.

The Bev Perdue Committee told the State Board of Elections in a campaign report she spent $46,000 from late October through Dec. 31. Perdue did not run for re-election in 2012.

Perdue’s report that the board received Monday said she gave $4,000 each to fellow Democrat Walter Dalton’s unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign and Linda Coleman’s legal fund as Coleman closely examined ballots in her narrow loss to Dan Forest for lieutenant governor.

Perdue gave $250,000 to the state Democratic Party during the third quarter. A Perdue spokesman has said she intends to use some funds to produce papers about her time in office. The committee owes Perdue and her husband $776,000.

 

Onslow sheriff’s deputy
faces drug charges 

JACKSONVILLE (AP) — An Onslow County sheriff’s deputy has been arrested and charged with improperly obtaining prescription drugs.

The State Bureau of Investigation says 27-year-old Joseph Mark Karaszewski has been charged with five counts of obtaining a controlled substance by improper prescription or withholding information from a medical professional.

Warrants accuse Karaszewski of obtaining 24 hydrocodone pills from a dentist, 15 acetaminophen tablets with codeine from a doctor and cough syrup with hydrocodone-chlorpheniram from a physician’s assistant. The warrants say he obtained the narcotics for his personal use.

Investigators say he visited medical professionals three times in October and twice in November.

Sheriff Ed Brown says the officer worked with the narcotics unit until six months ago. Karaszewski resigned just before his arrest.

It was not clear if he has a lawyer.

 

Plane crash victim
identified as Raleigh man 

MANTEO (AP) — Authorities have released the name of the pilot killed when his small plane crashed into the Croatan Sound earlier this week.

Authorities say Greg Carlisle of Raleigh died when the plane came down Sunday morning.

Dare County Regional Airport Director Robert Benson says the body was found in the cockpit.

Benson says the plane came down just short of the airfield in foggy conditions.

Carlisle was flying a 1978 Piper Seneca from Raleigh.

A woman was rescued from the wreckage and taken to Outer Banks Hospital for treatment. Her name has not been released.