The co-founders of the now-shuttered online classified ad site Backpage.com will face trial on charges that they knowingly used the site to facilitate prostitution — but the trial is not scheduled to get underway until January 15, 2020, according to a report by KTAR News in Phoenix, Arizona, where a hearing was held in the Backpage case on Monday.
The site, which many sex workers say provided protective layer of safety for them in their businesses, was seized and shut down by the FBI on April 6, and site founders Michael Lacey, 69, and James Larkin, 58 were arrested along with several other employees of the site that federal authorities say has generated $500 million from promotion of online prostitution.
Lacey made his first public remark on the case as he exited the Phoenix courthouse on Monday, responding to a question about the charges against him by saying, “Nonsense!” according to a report by El Paso, Texas, TV station KVIA. A large part of Backpage’s operation was based in Texas.
Lacey and Larkin have already entered not guilty pleas after being hit with a 93-count indictment that charges them with laundering million in profits from the site, because they knew that the money came from prostitution, including child prostitution, according to the accusations.
But the site’s CEO, Carl Ferrer, pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of felony conspiracy earlier in April, and agreed to cooperate with federal investigators, helping them gain access to the site’s data and servers so they could quickly take the site offline.
Ferrer began cooperating on April 5, one day before authorities seized and closed down the site.
As AVN.com reported on Thursday, in addition to the seizure of their entire business and the prospect of a trial and lengthy prison term, Lacey and Larkin faced additional legal troubles from Cook County, Illinois, Sheriff Tom Dart, who sued them last week. Dart accuses Lacey and Larkin of committing legal fraud when they slapped Cook County with a high-profile First Amendment lawsuit after Dart attempted to persuade credit card companies to cut off Backpage.
Because Ferrer pleaded guilty, as did Backpage as a corporate entity, the “entire First Amendment civil rights case was based on untrue facts from the beginning, and thus a hoax,” Dart’s suit, which seeks a full reimbursement of legal fees and expenses from Lacey and Larkin.
Pictured, l-r: Carl Ferrer, Michael Lacey and James Larkin. Photos via Sacramento County Sheriff's Department.
