LOS ANGELES — A judge on Tuesday declared a mistrial in the case against Michael Lacey and James Larkin, the founders of Backpage.com, who have been facing multiple charges of money laundering and facilitating prostitution, deciding prosecutors made too many references to child sex trafficking in a case where no one faced such a charge.
Backpage, a classified advertising site widely used as an online safe space for sex workers to promote their services and screen clients, was shut down and seized by the federal government in April of 2018. Lacey and Larkin were arrested and hit with a 93-count indictment.
Lacey, Larkin and four other Backpage employees were accused of knowingly selling ads for sex on the site. Even though prosecutors say the site published many ads that depicted children who were victims of sex trafficking, no one in the case has beeen charged with sex trafficking or child sex trafficking in the Arizona case. U.S. District Judge Susan Brnovich said that the cumulative effect of the child sex trafficking references made by prosecutors in opening statements and by witnesses for the prosecution “is something that I can’t overlook and will not overlook," according to a report by the Associated Press.
Brnovich had said before the start of the trial that while she would permit evidence indicating that individuals were trafficked on the website, prosecutors could not focus on specific details of alleged abuse, AP reported.
“It seemed the government abused that leeway,” she said.
Prosecutors have argued that Backpage generated roughly $500 million from the alleged prostitution scheme between the time it was first launched in 2004 and when it was shut down, according to the AP.
Lacey and Larkin said the site never allowed ads for sex and used people and automated tools to try to delete such ads. They also said the site's content was protected by the First Amendment and that the site helped authorities in investigating sex trafficking cases, AP reported.
The judge has scheduled an Oct. 5 status hearing.
In a separate case in state court in California, Lacey and Larkin had previously pleaded not guilty to money laundering charges. Prosecutors allege Backpage’s operators funneled nearly $45 million through multiple companies and created websites to get around banks that refused to process their transactions, according to AP.
A judge threw out pimping conspiracy and other state charges against Backpage’s operators earlier in the case, ruling the charges were barred by a federal law protecting free speech that grants immunity to websites posting content from others.
