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…
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…
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 Act; money laundering; conspiracy to commit money laundering; and conspiracy to facilitate misdemeanor…
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…
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…
In hindsight, I should not be surprised by “reporter” Richard Ruelas’ shameful steaming pile of a hit piece in the Arizona Republic yesterday. After all, the first thing the Republic lifer did when veteran newspapermen Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin…
As journalists and publishers with more than 40 years of experience in the business of news, we firmly believe our prosecution represents epic government overreach and an unprecedented assault on the First Amendment and freedom of speech. On April 6,…
As American servicemen die abroad attempting to shepherd vulnerable men, women and children to the land of freedom, agents of the U.S. government are trying their slithery best to subvert any discussion of our supreme civil liberty — the First…
