FPC’s coverage of the prosecution of publishers Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin on charges related to Backpage.
Update, August 1, 2020: On July 28, the Ninth Circuit issued an order dispensing with the need for oral arguments in the case. It states: “The court is of the unanimous opinion that the facts and legal arguments are adequately…
In a May 19 filing at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, First Amendment attorney Robert Corn-Revere leaves federal prosecutors’ arguments in the Lacey/Larkin case looking like Steve Buschemi’s character in Fargo following his date with the wood chipper. In…
Federal prosecutors in the Lacey/Larkin case seem eager to prove the infamous boast once uttered in Errol Morris’ classic, 1988 documentary on the perversion of justice, The Thin Blue Line, that the true test of a prosecutor is being able to…
A fiery motion to dismiss filed in the Lacey/Larkin case on May 1 in federal court in Phoenix accuses the U.S. Department of Justice of “outrageous government misconduct,” claiming federal pettifoggers and government agents repeatedly trampled upon the defendants’ attorney-client…
On May 4 in Phoenix, U.S. District Court Judge Susan Brnovich nixed a defense motion to dismiss the indictment of veteran newspapermen Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin, rejecting the motion’s argument that the prosecution had improperly charged the one-time alt-media…
On March 30, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals dealt federal prosecutors yet another setback in the government’s two-year-long quest to hold onto millions of dollars in publishing assets belonging to veteran newspapermen Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin, former owners…
On Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Susan Brnovich in Phoenix disappointed prosecutors in the Lacey/Larkin case by granting a defense motion to continue the trial’s start date, resetting it from May 5 to August 17. Citing the “expansive scope” of…
In a fascinating and frankly frightening admission made as part of a recent government filing in the prosecution of veteran journalists Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin, federal prosecutors in Phoenix claim they are not required to inform grand juries about…
Last week, on Jan. 9, federal Judge Susan Brnovich in Phoenix spiked a defense motion in the Lacey and Larkin case that accused attorneys for the U.S. Justice Department of having “grossly abused the grand jury process” by misleading jurors…
On January 7, U.S. District Court Judge Susan Brnovich, the trial judge in the ongoing criminal case against award-winning newspapermen Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin, denied a defense motion challenging the adequacy of computer server evidence, which the government claims…
