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…

Janus

On Thursday in Phoenix, U.S. District Court Judge Diane Humetewa denied a defense motion asking her to dismiss the five-year-old criminal case against veteran newspapermen Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin. The ruling clears the path for an August 8 retrial…

The rare moments of levity during the half-hour session at the Ninth Circuit on Sept. 2 in the Lacey/Larkin appeal came at the government’s expense as litigators jousted before a three-judge panel at the James R. Browning United States Courthouse…

Statue of Greek God of Justice, themis

Nearly a year since their first trial ended in a mistrial due to prosecutorial misconduct, storied newspapermen Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin head to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco on September 2, arguing that a retrial would…

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…