PHOENIX — The Backpage.com retrial is moving forward, following the death of co-defendant James “Jim” Larkin on July 31, with jury selection beginning Tuesday.
U.S. District Judge Diane Humetewa set the jury selection process to begin with a three-week delay, during a meeting held only days after Larkin took his own life in Superior, Arizona.
The judge warned at the time that Larkin’s death “could impact the handling of evidence exhibits in the case, as well as limit the potential jury pool, because a ‘tremendous amount’ of potential jurors in the case may have heard about the executive’s suicide,” The Independent newspaper reported.
Prosecutors dropped the charges against Larkin after his death, leaving five remaining defendants who collectively face 100 felony counts, Courthouse News reported.
Those defendants are Larkin’s long-time partner and Backpage co-founder Michael “Mike” Lacey, and executives Scott Spear, John Brunst, Andrew Padilla and Joye Vaught.
As XBIZ has been reporting, Backpage.com was shuttered and seized by federal authorities in 2018, days before President Trump signed FOSTA into law. The government accused Larkin, Lacey and other company executives of a number of crimes related to their ownership of the popular adult-oriented classifieds website. The case was subsequently used by several political figures, including Vice President Kamala Harris, as an example of the need for the FOSTA Section 230 exception.
Federal prosecutors accused the company of “participation in a conspiracy to facilitate and promote prostitution,” money laundering, human trafficking and other charges, which were strongly disputed by the defense.
Expert: Government Has 'No Trafficking Case'
In September 2021, Judge Susan Brnovich declared a mistrial, ruling that the government and its witnesses “crossed the line several times” by inaccurately implying that the case involved CSAM and child exploitation, even after she admonished them not to do so.
A witness during the first trial, Courthouse News reported, controversially claimed that “most sex trafficking victims were sold through Backpage while it was active.”
Alex Yelderman, special counsel to the Human Trafficking Legal Center, told Courthouse News that he has “no idea about percentages, and anybody who tells you they do is bullshitting.”
“There’s a huge amount of sentiment in the anti-human trafficking world that Backpage is a culprit here,” he added. “They’re not.”
Yelderman speculated that the government's focus on offenses involving minors — even though such offenses are not part of the government's case, and even though harping on the subject already resulted in a mistrial — is likely due to the prosecutors not having a sturdy trafficking case.