In a Dec. Though Lacey and Larkin, the co-founders of an alternative newspaper chain that once included the Village Voice and the LA Weekly, sold Backpage in , prosecutors are attempting to hold them accountable for alleged illegal acts connected to 50 adult ads uploaded to Backpage by its users, out of the millions of legal adult and non-adult ads that appeared on the site before the federal government seized Backpage on April 6, , removing it from the internet.
Regardless of the fact Lacey and Larkin never saw these ads and do not know the persons connected to them, the U. Department of Justice seeks to hold the two men and their four co-defendants vicariously liable for them.
As a result, Lacey and Larkin face counts of conspiracy, money laundering and the facilitation of prostitution in violation of a relatively obscure federal law, the U.
Travel Act. Judge Brnovich is the third judge to date on the case, the previous two having recused themselves on their own, without any prompting from the parties. The booklet essentially declares Backpage guilty of facilitating prostitution and, more heinously, child sex trafficking. On Nov. The same order instructed the government to file a response to the petition on Dec. The panel also invited Judge Brnovich herself to weigh in, but so far she has not done so. As part of his high-profile anti-trafficking campaign, he personally and publicly declared Backpage.
Judge Brnovich has argued that she can be impartial as the trial judge, and the prosecution asserts that it is wrong to attribute the views of one spouse to another. The Brnoviches are a very public couple, who have each assisted the other in their respective careers. Piccarreta is very familiar with the ups and downs of this litigation and the extraordinary zeal with which the U.
