The trial promises to be the First Amendment donnybrook of the century, with the federal government squaring off against Lacey and Larkin, former owners of the now-defunct online listings giant Backpage. Still, defense attorneys, who had asked for a September start date, cautioned that further delays might be necessary, especially if the coronavirus vaccine is not widely available by this summer both for trial participants and those in the jury pool. California attorney Thomas Bienert , who represents Larkin, noted that most states were doling out the vaccine based on the age of the recipients, with older persons receiving it sooner.
Bienert speculated that this might hamper the inclusion of younger people in the jury. Due to such uncertainty, the judge set a status conference for June 8 to possibly reassess the situation at that time.
Currently, criminal and civil trials in the Arizona District court have been postponed and all grand jury proceedings have been suspended. Meanwhile, Lacey, Larkin and their four co-defendants face counts of money laundering, conspiracy and facilitating prostitution in violation of the U.
Travel Act , a Kennedy-era law intended to go after mafia kingpins, not hound the onetime owners of a classifieds website like Backpage. To railroad these trailblazing journalists, who co-founded the Phoenix New Times and expanded it into a national chain of alternative weeklies known as Village Voice Media VVM , the federal government has concocted a cockamamie theory of prosecution, seeking to hold Lacey and Larkin vicariously liable for the criminal acts of others.
Specifically, the feds have cherry-picked 50 adult ads from the millions of ads posted to Backpage by its users for everything from puppy dog sales to apartment rentals to legal adult services, such as escorts and striptease. Prosecutors allege the adult ads are linked to illicit actions by third-parties. Nor were they aware of illegal acts perpetrated by those individuals. The superseding indictment is also belied by a string of victories Backpage had over the years in federal and state courts.
