Drawing outrage from sex workers and sex worker-rights advocates, the Arizona Republic recently painted a bullseye on Asian-staffed-and-owned massage parlors, with an article asking for tips from the public about sex trafficking allegedly occurring in such businesses. “Do you know…
U.S. District Court Judge Susan Brnovich stunned prosecutors on Tuesday morning when she declared a mistrial in the government’s case against lifelong journalists Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin, whom the prosecution aims to imprison for the rest of their lives…
Defense attorneys for journalists Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin moved for mistrial in federal court in Phoenix on Monday, following the testimony of government witness Dr. Sharon Cooper, an anti-porn, anti-sex work crusader, whom prosecutors presented to the court as…
Your taxes at work: Kamala Harris’s fave cop, California DOJ agent Brian Fichtner, spent around two days last week in the Lacey/Larkin trial reading saucy language and eyeballing naked and semi-naked ladies who allegedly once appeared in the Sacramento escorts…
Defense attorneys in the Lacey/Larkin trial fought like feral bobcats on Friday to block inflammatory testimony from a woman trafficked as a teen and advertised in adult ads posted by herself and pimps to the now-defunct classified-listings site, Backpage.com. Federal…
Update, Thursday, 9/9/2021: At the beginning of trial this morning, codefendant Andrew Padilla reported to the judge that he was not feeling well. In an abundance of caution, Judge Brnovich ordered that he have a rapid Covid test. Court was…
PLEASE ALSO READ: A STATEMENT FROM LACEY AND LARKIN ON THEIR 2021 TRIAL MAJOR POINTS Michael Lacey, Jim Larkin and four codefendants currently face 100 counts including the following: facilitating misdemeanor state prostitution offenses in violation of the U.S. Travel…
Update 9/07/2021: Monday night, the defense filed a Motion for Acquittal and Mistrial, arguing that the prosecution’s disingenuous, inaccurate and needlessly pornographic opening statement on Sep. 3 was so riddled with error that the jury has been “irretrievably tainted” by…
Update 9/4/2021: As I Tweeted yesterday after court, the defense unanimously moved for mistrial after federal prosecutor Reggie Jones gave an inflammatory and prejudicial opening statement to the jury. Jones essentially accused the defendants of crimes committed by others, with…
The grueling process of picking a jury in the Lacey/Larkin trial played out Wednesday in the ultra-humid “special proceedings courtroom” of downtown Phoenix’s Sandra Day O’Connor U.S. Courthouse, itself a hothouse of steel and glass built by some architectural sadist…
