New Bern, North Carolina- I had spoken to Adult retailer Greg Sakas last week, hours before he turned himself into police on Thursday March 8 and put up a bond. Because Sakas didn’t have any priors, authorities placed it at $1,000. On May 10th Sakas goes for arraignment and he’s been saying all along that he’s not going to back down from police harassment. Sakas’ store was raided in January because he was stocking both adult DVDS and novelties. The state of North Carolina says you can’t stock both in one place.

Sakas had been attempting to spark confrontation with police practically begging for them to come for him. In between the time police visited Sakas’ New Bern store in January, they visted his other store in Roanoake Rapids, North Carolina and arrested his manager, Robert “Paul” Weber. However, the cops elected not to handcuff Weber. At this point Sakas had no idea what was going to happen next and called his own attorneys for advice. It was agreed that he should turn himself in. Sakas then called the police a number of times over the course of a week offering to do this. The cops were not responding one way or another which struck Sakas as very strange.

It was then that Sakas, frustrated, decided to turn himself in along with Linwood O’Neal, another manager who was also charged.

He went to the police building and told the officer in charge, “I’m Greg Sakas and I want to see Det. Hughes now!” Hughes came out to see him, ushering Sakas to a back office. O’Neal kept quiet while Sakas continued his conversation with Hughes.

“I don’t appreciate the way this thing has been handled,” Sakas told Hughes. “We’ve been sitting here a week asking to come in at your convenience to turn ourselves in. For us to be treated this way is totally irregular in my opinion.”

“You might laugh about this but I’ve been on jury duty this week,” Hughes told Sakas. Sakas told Hughes he also tried talking to another officer and left messages. He never got a response either.

“Good thing there’s no major crime in this town,” Sakas told Hughes sarcastically. “Because a week is not as soon as possible.”

Hughes looked at Sakas and squared with him, stating he didn’t know that this North Carolina law was on the books.

“Maybe none of us did,” Sakas replied. “What makes you think I would have known?”

“All I can tell you is that this is coming from above,” Hughes told him. Sakas was riled and told Hughes he wanted to make a formal complaint about the way this case was being handled.

“This has been done for show,” Sakas told Hughes. “You could have asked us at any point to come in and we would have come in instead of having one of my employees [Weber] dragged out of a store. You tell your chief that exactly. That’s all I’ve got to say.”

Sakas then asked to be booked. Hughes told him he couldn’t and that Sakas had to drive 70 miles to Goldsboro to have that matter taken care of. Sakas remained insistent about filing a complaint.

With Sakas raising his voice, Hughes asked him to step outside.

“What do you want to talk about?” Sakas asked.

“This is off the record,” said Hughes. “I really can’t say I agree with this. I’ll be very up front with you. This should have been handled a lot differently than what it was.”

Sakas again told Hughes this was an obvious political maneuver by police chief Frank Palombo.

“All I can say is that I answer to people up higher,” Hughes kept insisting.

“You do answer to an asshole, don’t you?” Sakas told him.

“I’ve heard some of your employees think you’re an asshole, too,” came Hughes’ response.

“I’ll tell you what- all my employees respect me,” said Sakas. “But I know some have turned on me- they’ve the ones that have stolen and lied to me the last few weeks.”

“I can’t say anything on that,” Hughes said. “There’s four of you charged.”
Sakas thought there had been five and asked Hughes how Weber came to be arrested. Hughes claimed Weber told them where he could be found. Sakas called Weber on the spot and Weber told him he never spoke to the police. Sakas suspected the cops got the information from employees who were ratting out.

“They got to do what’s in their heart- I don’t blame them one bit,” Sakas said.

“I’ve heard that you sued several cities,” Hughes added.

“Several to date?” Sakas wondered.

“Several to date,” Hughes repeated.

“You tell your police chief it ain’t over by any stretch,” Sakas then told him.

In the meantime O’Neal is urging Sakas to leave and not say anything else.

“Nothing else needs to be said,” Sakas concluded, telling Hughes he appreciated the fact he had a rough road to hoe.

“I was thrown into this- I’m with narcotics!” Hughes exclaimed.

Before he put his foot any further in his mouth, Sakas decided to end the conversation. He and O’Neal then drove to the Sheriff’s Dept. in Goldsboro. Sakas went to the window proclaiming, “I’m Greg Sakas and I’ve got an arrest warrant here.”

“Do you need to search me or put handcuffs on me now?” Sakas also asked.

“We don’t need anyone of those,” the clerk told him.

“I don’t know- I’ve never been through any of this in my 58 years,” Sakas continued. Sakas was told they had to go to the magistrate’s office. The magistrate told Sakas there would be a $10,000 bond.

“Wait a minute,” said Sakas. “We were told in New Bern we were on our own recognizance.”

“I don’t know who told you that,” said the magistrate. “I’m the one who sets it here. I don’t know who told you or what they told you, I’m the one in charge. Do you understand me?”

“Yes, sir,” Sakas replied. “I don’t have a problem with that. I’m just going on what they told me. I’ve never been in this situation before. I’ve never been arrested before. You can look it up.”

“Then it’s a $1,000,” the magistrate told Sakas. “I can set it down to $1,000 in this case.”

“We need to get money because I don’t have any,” Sakas told him. “Can I leave, come back and I’ll bring the money?”

“No sir, you’re not leaving here!” the magistrate exclaimed.

“I walked in on my own- what do you think, I’m not coming back?” Sakas asked. “Come on, now.”

“I’m telling you, you can’t leave here.”

Sakas thought the whole exchange was unbelievable particularly since the magistrate wasn’t diverting his attention from a basketball game that was on TV.

“Maryland’s losing” Sakas observed dryly. The magistrate gave him a look.

“It’s still a $1,000,” the magistrate repeated.

“Okay, I’ve got a question for you,” said Sakas. “How?”

Sakas was told he could get a bail bondman which would cost $150.

“I’m not paying it,” Sakas refused.

“Then you can’t leave here.”

“That’s fine,” said Sakas. “I got a question for you then. What are you all having for supper tonight?”

“We have turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans,” piped in the sheriff’s deputy.

“Sounds good to me,” said Sakas.

“But in the morning we got hardboiled eggs,” the deputy added.

“That’s okay,” said Sakas. “Because I don’t eat breakfast and I don’t drink coffee in the morning. So I can wait it out until they post bond for me.”

The magistrate looked at Sakas and asked if he had property.

“I own my own house,” Sakas told him.

“Why don’t you put that up?”

“Why didn’t you tell me that to start off with?” Sakas asked. “You can check to see if I own it, can’t you?”

“I’ll believe you on that,” said the magistrate.

“But you wouldn’t believe that I’d get the money and come back?”

Sakas then made sure that his manager was also covered for bond.

“I hate to think I’m going to lose my house if you skip bail,” Sakas joked with O’Neal.

“No, that’s not what happens,” the magistrate informed Sakas. “It’s just added to your tax bill for the year.”