A former Savannah businessman on Friday pleaded guilty to attempting to extort $200,000 from embattled celebrity chef Paula Deen to keep quiet about damaging testimony he said would “sink her ship before it left the dock” in a pending civil case.
Thomas George Paculis, 62, of Newfield, N.Y., admitted to sending an email to Deen’s attorney Greg Hodges on June 27 and communicating the extortion demand.
“I did and I do take responsibility for what I have done,” Paculis told U.S. District Judge William T. Moore Jr.
He admitted to sending messages by email and talking to Hodges on the phone in what Moore characterized as “offer(ing) to sell your testimony to the highest bidder.”
“I did try to take money from him,” Paculis said. “I don’t know what to say.”
The defendant will be sentenced following completion of a pre-sentencing investigation by probation officers. While that process generally takes several months, court-appointed defense attorney Richard Darden told Moore the defendant had already met with probation officers and a pre-sentencing investigation should be finished within “two to three weeks.”
Included in that report will be recommended sentencing ranges for Moore’s consideration. The judge is not bound by those recommendations. Maximum sentence is 24 months and a fine, Moore said.
As part of his negotiated plea, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Newman said the government agreed not to proceed with the first of two counts in the indictment and will make no recommendation on sentencing. That count may be used in determining the sentencing range.
No sentencing date was set.
During his articulation before Moore, Paculis blamed “some bad economic times” for his actions and told the judge he asked for a “nondisclosure agreement,” apparently to give it some credibility.
Paculis is a former owner of the Troup Square Cafe on Habersham Street.
FBI Agent Brad Snider testified that Paculis sent an email to Hodges on June 24 telling him to “make me an offer I can’t refuse,” threatening to “bring hardship and financial ruin” to Deen, who was referred to in the indictment as “PD.”
The initial request was for $250,000.
Hodges, who represented Deen in a federal lawsuit, contacted FBI officials and in a subsequent communication with Paculis monitored by FBI agents the defendant agreed to accept $200,000, Snider said.
Both communications were sent interstate from New York to Georgia, federal prosecutors said. Paculis was arrested July 5 in New York.
He initially pleaded not guilty to a two count indictment July 16 and was allowed to remain free on an unsecured bond by U.S. Magistrate Judge G.R. Smith.
But Moore bristled at allowing Paculis to remain free on his pre-trial bond.
“I have a great deal of concern about someone who has offered to sell his testimony,” Moore said, adding he could not understand why he should allow bond for someone who was willing to do that.
Darden urged Moore to consider something less restrictive than incarceration, noting that Paculis is caring for a 50-year-old woman with Down syndrome in New York.
Darden said there was no evidence that Paculis would flee or has had any contact with witnesses.
“He now stands as a convicted felon,” Darden told Moore.
Moore again blasted the conduct he considered of a defendant perjuring himself or offering to perjure himself, adding it was only the second time in his 20 years on the bench that he had encountered similar circumstances.
Addressing Paculis, Moore said that, among his many critical mistakes in the case, Paculis made his offer to Hodges.
“I don’t know of any lawyer in this state who’s more ethical or more honest” than Hodges, Moore said. “It’s reprehensible for someone to offer to sell his testimony in a case.”
Finally Moore said, he would allow Paculis to remain free on his bond, but added an electronic monitor to be paid for by the defendant, warning him that any violation of his pre-trial release conditions would result in immediate arrest and incarceration.
Hodges no longer represents Deen in a suit filed by Lisa Jackson, a former employee who alleges she was the victim of alleged sexual harassment and a pattern of persistent racial discrimination in the workplace during her five years at Uncle Bubba’s Seafood House Inc. on Whitemarsh Island.