Steve Banks hasn’t let a gag order issued last week as part of his sentence for embezzling $75 from Canton Papertown Association stop him from getting his side of the story out.

Banks’s mother, Veronica Whitehead, has been acting as his spokesperson by offering interviews with the media and sending out prepared statements on Banks’ behalf.

“If you want to know anything, just call mom,” Banks said. “If she doesn’t know the answer, she can get it pretty quick.”

A similar technique was deployed by Jay Leno earlier this year when a preliminary injunction briefly prevented Leno from telling Michael Jackson jokes. Leno kept writing the jokes but had an assistant read them during the show while Leno looked on.

The charges stem from a March incident where Banks cashed three checks each for $25 made out to Papertown and put the money toward personal use. Banks said he cashed the checks as a roundabout way of reimbursing himself for supplies he bought out of his own pocket at the last minute before a celebration to honor the Pisgah High School basketball team.

Banks repaid the money within days of the incident. The Papertown board of directors later tried to drop the charges, saying they did not believe Banks had “criminal intent” but had used poor judgment, but the case went forward.

Banks got three years of probation, 60 hours of community service, a $200 fine — plus has to give $75 to all three people who wrote the initial $25 checks in question as an amends of sorts.

But the worst part of the sentence for Banks came when the judge told Banks not to talk about the case.

“I’m not even supposed to say the name of the organization I used to work for,” Banks said. “But I can talk about everything else and I have plenty to say.”

Banks is the host of the morning show on WPTL, an AM radio station in Canton. He has appeared on an Asheville AM talk radio show to share his plight and sends press releases regularly to media outlets. He has claimed the charges against him were trumped up with the desire to drive him out of town, and singled out everyone from the Canton police chief, the Canton mayor and the district attorney as part of the conspiracy.

Another target of Banks’ missives was the Papertown executive director who proceeded him, Gail Guy. Guy was charged with embezzling nearly $8,000 of town tax dollars and tourism tax dollars and misusing another $1,350 obtained under false pretenses.

“It will be interesting to see how Gail Guy is treated. I have a feeling she will not be treated as badly as Steven was treated,” said Whitehead, Bank’s mom.

Banks has numerous petty theft and forgery allegations on his record in New York state, where he lived during the mid-1990s and into 2000. The mother of Banks’ children in New York has a restraining order against him and has alleged abuse.

Locally, Banks has been charged with assaulting his 15-year-old son and his wife. Banks said he found his son smoking marijuana in his house. Banks said his wife made up the charges because she was mad at him when she thought he was seeing someone else, only he wasn’t, and she since dropped the charges.

“My credibility is about shot in Haywood County, the logical thing would be to leave and start over somewhere else,” Banks said in a written statement. “But I'm not going anywhere. There is too much to be done here in Haywood.”

Banks who originally wanted to run for office in Canton, said he couldn’t because of the charges, but promised he would be politically active.

“I had a minor setback, now I'm on the right road again. We will make this a better place for family and God, if it kills me.”