SAN FRANCISCO — Attorneys for the former owners of Backpage.com and for the federal government presented arguments this morning before a three-judge Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel, in the defendants' appeal of a lower court's denial to dismiss the case.
Attorneys for former Backpage.com owners Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin, led by First Amendment expert and noted adult industry attorney Paul Cambria, continue to seek a dismissal due to double jeopardy, after the pair's first trial ended catastrophically for the government in a mistrial due to prosecutorial misconduct.
The oral arguments before judges William A. Fletcher, Jay Bybee and Lawrence Vandyke were broadcast live from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals website this morning.
Stephen Lemons, editor of the Lacey and Larkin-associated website Front Page Confidential and the leading authority on the case, told XBIZ that today’s arguments “revealed, yet again, the tenuousness of the prosecution’s case.”
The government, Lemons added, “wants to pretend the Lacey and Larkin case has nothing to do with speech. It’s all about speech — legal speech that the government has suppressed. My hope is that the Ninth Circuit can put an end to this travesty.”
Today's oral arguments come a year after controversial Judge Susan Brnovich — wife of Arizona Attorney General Mike Brnovich, who is currently campaigning for a U.S. Senate seat — declared a mistrial in the case against Lacey and Larkin.
As XBIZ reported, the mistrial ruling came after prosecutors repeatedly ignored Judge Brnovich's instructions not to attempt to prejudice the jury by bringing up unrelated and inflammatory “child sex trafficking” insinuations.
“The trial judge declared a mistrial in September 2021 due to prosecutorial misconduct,” Lemons told XBIZ at the time. “The defense moved for dismissal, arguing that a new trial would violate the Fifth Amendment’s bar on trying someone twice for the same crime.”
Lemons explained that a new judge “denied that motion without holding an evidentiary hearing. The defense has appealed to the Ninth Circuit."