PHOENIX — The Arizona judge overseeing the criminal trial of the former Backpage.com owners has granted another motion by the defense to move the trial date, this time to April 2021, which will coincide with the third anniversary of Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin’s arrest and assets seizure.
The trial, originally scheduled for May 2020, had first been postponed by U.S. District Court Judge Susan Brnovich in February until August 17, and then in July to January 2021, due to concerns regarding the COVID-19 health crisis in the state.
On September 21, the defense had requested a reset due to a medical leave scheduled by one of the defense attorneys. The Backpage lawyers had also argued for the delay, as they did during July's request, due to the ongoing uncertainty over the public health handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The latest postponement was first reported by the news site FrontPageConfidential.com, which is published by Lacey and Larkin and edited by Stephen Lemons, and is the last journalistic remnant of their once-powerful Village Voice Media empire.
A String of Delays
Lacey and Larkin and others are accused by the government of a number of alleged crimes over their ownership of the popular adult-oriented classifieds website.
Backpage.com was shuttered and seized by federal authorities in 2018. They accuse the company of “participation in a conspiracy to facilitate and promote prostitution,” and also of money laundering, human trafficking and other charges, which are strongly disputed by their defense.
Last October, U.S. District Court in Arizona Judge Susan Brnovich rejected a motion to dismiss the entire case filed by the defense.
This week's delay comes only a few weeks after the defense requested that Judge Brnovich recuse herself from their ongoing trial over public statements made by her husband, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a vocal activist against what he calls “human trafficking,” including a lurid pamphlet published by his office.
Lacey and Larkin's attorneys filed a motion in late September bringing attention to Mark Brnovich’s statements and pamphlet, claiming they “create a situation where the court’s impartiality could be questioned,” according to an Associated Press report.
A Biased Pamphlet
The defense noted then that Mark Brnovich’s explicitly biased language and vocal anti-trafficking crusading, made the Arizona’s AG controversial campaign — which includes the sensationalistic 2017 pamphlet “Human Trafficking: Arizona’s Not Buying It,” with a cover portraying a stock photo of a young woman wearing a skimpy top and leaning into the window of a car — call into question his wife’s impartiality.
“He has publicly claimed that Backpage.com facilitated illegal prostitution — the issue at the core of this case,” wrote the defense lawyers, who, according to AP, said they discovered the pamphlet two weeks ago.
“He also has publicly claimed Backpage.com facilitated sex trafficking and called on Congress to change federal law so he himself would not be barred from prosecuting Backpage.com and/or defendants,” Lacey and Larkin’s lawyers noted. “He has publicly aligned himself with others who have publicly made similar claims.”
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