Backpage Trial Update: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly Truth

In a year which has already seen its share of unprecedented twists, U.S. District Court Judge Susan Brnovich, has announced a new delay of what some have been calling the criminal case of the century — the trial of Michael Lacey and James Larkin.

Our readers will remember these two as the former pimp executives who oversaw a chain of alt weekly rags which included Phoenix New Times and the Village Voice of New York. They will remember, too, that it was Larkin and Lacey who kept their Chief Apologist, Tony Ortega, on the payroll in order to defend their disgusting corporate practice of profiting from human trafficking.

Recently we took a deep dive look into how Tony attempted to earn his Backpage paychecks by throwing very public hissy fits bemoaning the erosion of Backpage First Amendment Rights.

And honestly, it was beyond sickening.

Maybe that’s why it’s a little ironic that concern over “getting sick” was the reason given in the judge’s ruling to delay. Judge Brnovich, in her announcement that the trial would be moved to January, said, “ The Court feels that it cannot ensure the health and safety of all trial participants at this time.”

Judge Brnovich went on to explain that, given the overwhelming interest in the case, the sheer number of people in the courtroom itself posed a risk. (But then, perhaps that is what happens when two of the most notorious human traffickers in U.S. history finally get called to account.)

Of course beyond Lacey and Larkin, the case involves four other defendants who all stand accused of a variety of crimes committed in service of the Backpage child sex trafficking syndicate.

The 100-count indictment the government filed outlined a conspiracy among the executives and employees to court prostitutes and pimps to advertise on the website. The indictment also details how the executives laundered money by using cryptocurrency and other nefarious methods.

The government’s case against Backpage maintains that the website intentionally courted the prostitution, and the trafficking of underage children for the purpose of sexual exploitation, by working with pimps to alter the wording in advertisements.

For his part, Tony Ortega echoed the company lie, proudly announcing that Backpage would be implementing stringent new methods to keep ‘bad actors’ from using Backpage for illegal activity.

The true function of Tony Ortega’s lie was to provide Lacey and Larkin with a thin veneer of deniability. They knew all along what the ads were really for.

After all, Backpage was built to make money off illegal activity.

While many of us are disappointed that we must wait until the new year before seeing justice in the case, we hold out hope that in the interim new developments in the federal investigation into the crooks, cons and craven co-conspirators who helped protect Backpage might come to light.

Who knows, maybe a few new criminal conspirators might be added.

If so, we here at the blog can’t think of any craven co-conspirator we’d rather see in the docket than Tony “Backpage” Ortega.