In a motion filed Thursday in federal court in Phoenix, government attorneys have — for the second time — asked federal Judge Diane Humetewa to exclude any mention of the First Amendment in front of the jury during the Backpage…
Update, Thursday, Sept. 7: The Backpage trial will resume on Tuesday, Sept. 12, per an order today from the federal court in Phoenix. The court further ordered: ORDER as to Michael Lacey, et al., IT IS ORDERED that upon notice…
We are journalists, editors, artists, and public servants who support veteran newspaperman Michael Lacey in his First Amendment fight with the federal government. On July 31, 2023, Lacey’s longtime business partner, veteran newspaperman James Larkin, died tragically one week before…
On Friday, at the final pretrial hearing in the Backpage case, federal Judge Diane Humetewa in Phoenix shot down a defense suggestion that the prosecution not use the terms “sex trafficking” and “child sex trafficking” during the Aug. 29 trial…
FROM MICHAEL LACEY Jim Larkin’s passing has torn at my heart. I knew him for over 40 years as we pursued stories across America, literally from sea to shining sea. He began a newspaper in high school; journalism was quite…
During a marathon six-hour pre-trial hearing in Phoenix’s federal court on Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Diane Humetewa ruled that the defense in the Backpage case can argue the adult-themed ads that appeared on the classified listings site were, in…
Statement from Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin: The U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO) in Phoenix recently filed nine motions in our case aimed at denying us a fair trial, the most egregious of which asks federal Judge Diane Humetewa to prevent…
Is the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Arizona getting legal advice from North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un? Forgive the jest, but on Thursday, prosecutors in the August 8 retrial of veteran newspapermen Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin filed nine pretrial…
Staring down the barrel of an expensive retrial triggered by intentional government overreach, defense attorneys in the Lacey/Larkin case are asking federal Judge Diane Humetewa to release a fraction of the millions of dollars in assets illegally seized by the…
The FBI recently returned scores of personal possessions belonging to veteran newspapermen Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin as the result of a judge’s finding that the bureau violated their Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable search and seizure when its agents…
