New Bern, North Carolina- It appears that judges in Greg Sakas’ neck of the woods want no part of a trial that was scheduled for November 16th.
Sakas’ adult store Pure Bliss was raided last January and again in September. Cops had subsequently charged Sakas with a third degree misdemeanor.
“This is the funniest one yet,” says Sakas who got a call from his attorney telling him that the judge who was supposed to hear his case next week now refuses to.
“And no judge in the district wants it,” adds Sakas. “They’re asking us to find a judge outside the district to hear this case. We’re in the process of giving them a list of witnesses that we want subpoenaed, from the city attorney to the fire marshall to the city planning director to the local head of the Christian Coalition; we just went down a whole list of the people we wanted.”
“The judge said I refuse to it, and no other judge wants to, either,” Sakas continues. Sakas didn’t know specifically who the judge was that took a pass but knew it was a woman judge.
“This is another irony to this whole case,” muses Sakas. “They really don’t want to hear it. I think it’s because they’re leery of the Christian Coalition. They don’t want to have to rule on it knowing more than likely they may have to rule in favor of us.”
“The city is saying they have a viable case and the DA is going to move forward with it,” Sakas notes. “His political career is in jeopardy if he drops its or if he loses this case. They’re going to go to town with him. And the police chief [Frank Palombo] is going to say I had it and they lost it, they weren’t prepared.
“So unless the DA wins this case, he’s behind the eight ball anyway you look at it,” states Sakas. “But have you ever heard of a case where the district judges didn’t want to hear it? It’s happened. Would you be laughing if this were me?”
“We don’t know how long this case is going to take if we move to a different district,” Sakas goes on to say. “You can forget it this year. I would think.”
“And all of this is over a third class misdemeanor!” laughs Sakas. “This isn’t murder or rape. And it’s gotten to be this controversial?”
According to Sakas, the case involving Palombo’s son who faces 23 different drug charges has pretty much been swept under the rug.