In an order dated March 23, U.S. District Court Judge Diane Humetewa in Phoenix set a new start date for the retrial of veteran newspapermen Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin, former owners of the Craigslist-esque classified listings site Backpage.com: August…
See judge’s order, here: Journalists Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin tell a federal judge that they do not oppose severing their retrial in Phoenix from four co-defendants, with some caveats, while prosecutors oppose the idea. Responding to a recent inquiry…
On Sunday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals tentatively scheduled oral arguments in the Lacey/Larkin case for Friday, September 2, nearly a year after prosecutorial misconduct caused a mistrial in the high-stakes First Amendment donnybrook. The hearing is one of…
The U.S. Department of Justice has wasted four years and untold millions of tax dollars on the wrongful prosecution of award-winning journalists and former Backpage owners Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin. Given the opportunity, the DOJ may waste more. Because…
Forget smoking guns. In an appellate brief filed recently at the Ninth Circuit, defense attorneys in the Lacey/Larkin case offer a series of flaming bazookas, detailing the prosecution’s unabashed intent to force the defense to move for a mistrial (and…
Defense attorneys in the Lacey/Larkin case faced a high bar during Friday’s oral arguments in Phoenix’s federal court on their motion for dismissal for double jeopardy, filed in the wake of a mistrial declared on Sep. 14 by Judge Susan…
Undeterred by the mistrial they caused Sept. 14, federal prosecutors are revisiting the deceitful tactics that interrupted their first stab at falsely convicting veteran newspapermen Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin for their former ownership of the classified-listings giant, Backpage.com. In…
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 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…
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…
