Christian Coalition Waging Porn War in North Carolina; they want dildos and dvd's out of the state

North Carolina- Greg Sakas was the first, but he was told he won't be the last adult store owner to feel the sting from the Christian Coalition.

Sakas' store in New Bern, North Carolina was raided by police late January and Sakas intends to fight mounting opposition to adult material in North Carolina. I spoke to Sakas Friday afternoon. I asked him how he was.

"I'm madder than hell and pissed off as much as you can possibly be pissed off and disgusted with the system," he tells me. "Other than that I'm doing fine."

According to Sakas, police seized everything in his store, one of ten which he operates in North Carolina.

"They were in the store and took all the DVD's," says Sakas. "They left the empty boxes. They took all the original DVD's- they seized everyone of them. They seized all of the magazines except the tattoo magazines. Even the ones that were boxed up and not put out yet. They ended up taking some of the novelties. But they run out of boxes to put the stuff in, they ran out of time. Because they would have been on overtime. They quit at that point."

According to Sakas, the cops also seized all his transactions and store records. They took his cash register. They seized all his vendor information including records of his rental customers.

"We couldn't even file our sales taxes last month," he said. "We had to estimate our taxes. They took all of our invoices. They raped the damn place."

The cops came in on a third class misdemeanor charge meaning in the state you can't have both DVD's and novelties in the same store. Sakas says those laws have been on the books since the early Seventies but have never been enforced.

However, Sakas said before he opened the store three years ago, he was assured by officials that it wouldn't be a problem.

"Now they're saying, well, maybe we were wrong," adds Sakas. "So they're having to regroup because of all this. They're having egg all over their face.

"Stores are vulnerable- I'm the first one this happened to," Sakas continues.

"Now I'm going to have to fight the state on this," he said. Judging by what Sakas is saying he's retained Paul Cambria's firm.

"And I've got two good ol' boys down here fighting," continues Sakas. "I'm going to be charged criminally. They wanted me to go in today. I said no, I'm not coming in without my attorneys. And now they're trying to get everyone of my employees to turn states evidence. That means I've got to have lawyers for every one of them."

Sakas, however, is pretty sure that there will be a couple of employees who'll turn on him.

"The police chief [Frank Palombo] there is out for blood," Sakas continues. "He's looking to clean up the state of North Carolina. There's over 200 stores in the state that carry both products. If I go down, the Christian Coalition that's running this whole operation is going to be looking to see what they can do over the entire state.

"And the Christian Coalition has already told me they're going after the next one. The sonofabitch told me that! This whole thing started last year. I was supposed to meet with them the 15th of January. The 17th is when everything went down. They told me get all of your adult stuff out or else there will be consequences. I thought, shit, they'd picket. But they went to the police chief."

Sakas says a Det. Hughes came into his store Friday morning and told one of his employees that if he doesn't turn evidence on Sakas he'll be charged also and it will go on his record.

Sakas is also convinced the cops have his store wiretapped.

"We were putting stuff back in the store trying to open up today and not five minutes later the cops were there." Sakas is also being told by cops that his store is within 400 feet of residential property.

"I said the city gave me permission- I've got a letter before I moved- they said I was fine the way I was."

Sakas complained to one police sergeant who was in his store about "Gestapo tactics."

"He hung up on me," said Sakas who called back and told his employee to get the cop back on.

"I'll apologize to him about using the words gestapo tactics. How many people would come in there and ransack a store like that? He said I don't want to get into it. He said you need to come down to the city. I said for what? He said you're being charged. I said well, I'm not coming down there. I'm not even in the state right now. He said you need to come down here or else. I said if I come down it's going to be with my attorneys. I'm not coming down there myself. I'll have my attorneys contact you- and that was it."

"Basically we got a helluva fight coming up in North Carolina," predicts Sakas whose hero is Larry Flynt.

"If I fight this, I need help," says Sakas. "But I'm going to fight it regardless. Every toy manufacturer needs to know what's going on. Every adult company needs to know.

"If the Chrsitian Coalition gets a foothold they can go after every store in this state. And they'll do the same shit to somebody else." Sakas was told the opposition is bragging about doing this in every city in the state.

"I'm not exaggerating. I'm just a small person in this business. But this has never happened to this extent in North Carolina. This is totally political."