New Bern, North Carolina- Adult store owner Greg Sakas was due in court last Thursday. There was a continuance. As if that’s surprising.

Sakas’ store was raided in January by police who confiscated his inventory and business records. Sakas is being charged with a third class misdemeanor.

“We went in there, and they continued it until the 27th of September,” says Sakas. Sakas has retained attorney Glen Barfield as personal counsel along with Mark Chestnut, a reputed big gun criminal attorney, who will handle the criminal proceedings.

“They’re treating this like it’s more than a daggone third class misdemeanor,” states Sakas. “We’ve got a criminal lawyer, we’ve got a First Amendment attorney out of Buffalo which is Paul Cambria’s firm and Barfield, who if we have to sue them in federal court- he’s licensed to handle that part of it. Barfield’s the one who’s been intervening with the city in hopes of trying to resolve this.”

“Everything has broken down right now,” Sakas continues. “We don’t have any agreements, anything. We’re going to have to move forward. Barfield said that we need to see about getting criminal charges out of the way before we do anything else. So among three lawyers they’re trying to figure out what we’e going to do. But first we have to get those criminal charges out of the way. Can we do it? I think we can. Chestnut said he’d prefer to have Glen Barfield because Glen also knows First Amendment.”

“Mark Chestnut is saying we might as well drop a lawsuit on them,” Sakas continues. “Barfield is saying we need to get the criminal charges out of the way before we can file suit, so we have a clear understanding that if we win this go-around, they’re going to realize they ain’t going to win. So maybe we can still resolves some things.”

“But we don’t have any agreements or anything from the city right now,” states Sakas. According to Sakas, Barfield’s opinion is that New Bern would be very foolish to come in and try anything further.

“If they do that, we can tell them you gave us a verbal agreement [not to further interfere with Sakas’ business]. But is a verbal agreement worth anything?” asks Sakas.

“Barfield is saying it would not be to their benefit if they did.”

And Sakas has just now finally re-stocked his store although he can’t get his equipment back.

“And they have never given us what we requested which is a full inventory of what was taken,” adds Sakas. “They won’t even respond.”

Last Thursday Sakas went into court. His manager, who’s also standing charges, didn’t want to use Sakas’ attorneys. She’s using her own counsel.

“They gave her the offer to turn state’s evidence,” Sakas notes. “All she can say is I [Saks] owned the company and, yes, she was selling those items. But they want her testifying. She can say all she wants.”

“We went into court and sat there all morning long,” says Sakas. “They were not ready to go. We were not ready to go. But when we go back into court September 27, we’re going to be ready to go forward. They’re not going to drop charges so they’re going to have to have their ducks in a row. But they have one of their best prosecutors in there.”

“This is eight friggin’ months but there’s no doubr they’re going to prosecute,” Sakas contends.

The Christian Coalition which has been picketing his store on Sundays was not out yesterday,” Sakas also notes. “We were ready for them to come out but they didn’t show. I guess they take turns picketing someone else.”

That he has to retain a top criminal attorney to handle a third degree misdemeanor is almost amusing to Sakas.

“Mark Chestnut has tried murder cases, rape cases, arson, you name it,” he says. “He’s never had a third class misdemeanor on adult charges. So I guess that’s a little more difficult than a murder case.”

When Sakas was in court he took note of people up on charges far worse than his.

“They had a guy in there for larceny and aggravated assault on the mother of his child,” Sakas continues. “They had him on tresppassing and robbery. And it was a $5,000 bond. When they originally tried to charge us on a third class misdemeanor they wanted $10,000. They had a lady who had to set bond- they set it at $500- they caught her with paraphernalia in the car, driving without a license, driving without a registration or registered vehicle; driving with expired tags and they gave her $500. I thought that was a helluva lot worse than what we just had. Something’s wrong with this system. I just sat there and laughed.”

So far, Sakas says he’s received $17,135.88 in contributions and product from the adult industry towards his legal and business expenses.

“I’m very appreciative,” says Sakas.