PHOENIX—The process of jury selection has begun as the next federal criminal trial date against Backpage executives and co-founder Michael Lacey proceeds.
A three-week delay of the trial was granted after Lacey's business partner, James Larkin, died of an apparent suicide in early August. Federal prosecutors are presenting a case to justify charges of prostitution-facilitation and money laundering, reports the Courthouse News Service in an August 29 briefing.
AVN reported on Larkin's death earlier this month. The prosecution dropped the charges against Larkin post-mortem.
Critics of the arrests of Lacey and Larkin accuse the federal government of being responsible for the suicide and for carrying on a multi-year witch hunt. A slate of journalists recently published a statement calling for an end to the prosecution of Lacey.
Now, Lacey and other former executives collectively face 100 felony counts ranging from the facilitation of prostitution, money laundering as stated, conspiracy, and other related charges. Central to their defense has long been claims of First Amendment protections.
Prosecutors pressed the federal district judge presiding over the money laundering and facilitation case to bar the defense counsel from mentioning the First Amendment. The judge, U.S. District Judge Diane Humetewa, ruled in favor of the defense, stating that it is incumbent on the prosecution to prove that the business practices the defense characterizes as lawful expression under the First Amendment were illegal.
However, the judge did give permission for some discussion on topics like sex trafficking.
A mistrial was granted in 2021 due to the prosecution in that case consistently alleging that Backpage.com was rife with human trafficking and that Lacey and Larkin were complicit. However, none of the executives in the case against the defunct classified site have been charged with crimes of sexual or human trafficking.
"If you want to talk about trafficking in this case, there’s a perfectly good way to do that: charging them with trafficking,” Alex Yelderman, special counsel to the Human Trafficking Legal Center, told Courthouse News Service reporter Joe Duhowink.
Yelderman adds: “And they can’t. They just don’t have a case.”
Lacey and Larkin founded the Phoenix New Times and a national media company that owned iconic alt-weekly news outlets across the country.
Both are regarded as champions of the First Amendment by civil liberties activists and proponents of digital rights and privacy.
