See judge’s order, here: Unprompted by the parties in the case, federal Judge Diane Humetewa suggested severing the upcoming trials of ex-Backpage owners Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin from their fellow defendants. In an order filed Thursday in federal court…
In a 17-page order issued Dec. 10 in the Lacey/Larkin case, U.S. District Court Judge Diane Humetewa in Phoenix denied a defense motion requesting that the court release a fraction of the more than $135 million dollars seized by federal…
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…
On Oct. 5 in Phoenix, federal Judge Susan Brnovich set a new date for round two of the Scopes Monkey Trial of the 21st Century: i.e., the DOJ’s railroading of veteran newspapermen Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin, onetime owners of…
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…
Ruling strictly on procedural grounds, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently dismissed a challenge to the federal government’s seizure of millions of dollars in assets belonging to longtime publishers and journalists Michael Lacey and Jim…
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…
In a 12-page decision issued on December 20 from his chambers in Los Angeles, U.S. District Court Judge R. Gary Klausner brushed aside a First Amendment challenge to the federal government’s seizure of millions in publishing proceeds as part of…
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit today vacated a lower court’s order halting a First Amendment challenge by ex-Backpage owners Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin to the federal government’s seizure of millions of…
