PHOENIX — The controversial federal judge who presided over the trial of former Backpage.com owners Mike Lacey and Jim Larkin — which already ended in one mistrial before being rescheduled for next year — has decided to recuse herself.
Judge Susan Brnovich, the wife of Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, who is a current hopeful for the state's Republican Senate nomination, refused to recuse herself back in April, before the mistrial, when the Lacey and Larkin defense brought up a conflict of interest between her impartiality and her husband’s publicly stated belief that Backpage.com was connected to “human trafficking.”
Today, Judge Brnovich finally recused herself, although according to the Lacey/Larkin-aligned Front Page Confidential news site, overseen by veteran Arizona journalist Stephen Lemons, she gave "no reason for the surprise move in a terse order to the court making the announcement."
Lemons, who broke the story this afternoon, reported that “the statement also said the case had been reassigned by lot to federal Judge Diane J. Humetewa.”
Nunchuks and Crosses
Attempting to reach fringe sectors of the Republican party, and also the youth vote, Mark Brnovich's Senate campaign has become increasingly bizarre, with a recent Twitter post where the decidedly non-athletic Arizona AG demonstrates his skill handling martial arts weaponry.
Mark Brnovich, as the Lacey and Larkin attorneys pointed out during their initial recusal request, also issued a pamphlet from his office misrepresenting a supposed "sex trafficking" crisis in the state that is not evidenced by any official statistics.
The sensationalistic 2017 pamphlet, still available as a government publication, is illustrated with stock photography of young, cis white women in apparent peril but does not reflect any known statistics about actual human trafficking. The pamphlet repeatedly mentions Backpage — at the time of publication not yet shuttered by the FBI — as engaging in and central to “human trafficking.”
The pamphlet is presented as the thoughts of AG Brnovich and it even begins with an introduction titled “Letter From Mark” where the public servant takes full ownership of the alarmist statements that follow.
Susan Brnovich is prominently featured in her husband's campaign material, where she appears as a supportive spouse and prominently sports a cross around her neck.
For XBIZ's ongoing coverage of the Backpage case, click here.