THE
CURIOUS
CAREER OF
STEPHEN
LAROQUE
When Kathryn Treadway pulled into the driveway in a tree-filled
subdivision in Kinston, N.C., at 9 a.m. on a Friday in May, 2011, she
didn’t know whether the man who lived on the three-and-a-half
acre property would welcome her or call the police. ¶ They had
never met in person, but the previous evening they had sparred
over email. ¶ The owner of the house, Stephen LaRoque, was a
senior Republican in the North Carolina House of Representatives.
He had helped his party stall a measure to maintain the state’s
eligibility for long-term federal unemployment insurance. ¶ North
Carolina’s unemployment rate was 10.5 percent at the time,
and the standoff in the statehouse had stopped checks for 47,000
BY ARTHUR DELANEY ILLUSTRATION BY EDDIE GUY