PHOENIX — Judge Susan Brnovich declared a mistrial this morning in the federal trial against the former Backpage.com owners Mike Lacey and Jim Larkin, which started earlier this month in Phoenix.
The defense attorneys had renewed their calls for a mistrial yesterday — which they had first moved for over a week ago, as soon as the federal prosecutor finished his opening statement — after the government presented the testimony of a supposed “online sex trafficking expert” who happened to be an anti-porn and anti-sex work crusader and regular speaker at NCOSE (formerly Morality in Media) conferences.
That witness, Dr. Susan Cooper, has gone on record as believing that adult content has an effect “like cocaine” on the human brain, a scientifically debunked position that is often parroted by many religiously inspired War on Porn activists.
Lacey’s attorney, Paul Cambria, had motioned yesterday for mistrial, alleging that the federal government had “obviously prepared this witness” to repeat the words “children” and “trafficking” over and over to influence the jurors during a case “where there is no charge of trafficking of children.”
Larkin’s attorney Thomas Bienert joined the motion.
Judge Brnovich, who had consistently ruled against the defense, surprised the court by announcing she had “concerns that the government has crossed that line several times, even after I advised the government not to do it, at sidebar.”
A ‘Highly Inflammatory’ Prosecution Strategy
Phoenix-based journalist Stephen Lemons, who has been covering the case closely since its inception, broke the news of the mistrial on Twitter.
Lemons currently writes for Front Page Confidential, the last remaining outlet of the once-powerful Village Voice Media organization headed by Lacey and Larkin, and he is arguably the journalist closest to the defendants.
Describing Cooper’s testimony yesterday, Lemons wrote that “under questioning by prosecutor Reggie Jones, [she] consistently conflated voluntary, adult sex work with sex trafficking, despite strenuous objections from attorney Joy Bertrand, who represents one of Lacey and Larkin’s co-defendants.”
Bertrand, Lemons also reported, had “filed a motion on Sunday asking for Judge Brnovich to preclude Cooper’s testimony, which Bertrand anticipated would be ‘highly inflammatory’ and create ‘new, evidentiary rabbit holes for the jury […] to fall down regarding third-party conduct.’ Brnovich denied the motion to block Cooper, or, in the alternative, to hold a hearing to determine Cooper’s qualifications to testify.”
The controversial judge — she is married to the current Arizona Attorney General, who has gone on record with prejudicial statements against Backpage and sex work in general — nevertheless “allowed Cooper’s testimony to proceed, but limited it to what Jones called the ‘vernacular’ of ‘prostitution and sex trafficking,’ and the supposed role of online platforms in trafficking.”
As Lemons pointed out, “neither Lacey, Larkin or their four co-defendants are charged with sex trafficking or child sex trafficking. Rather, they face up to 100 counts regarding conspiracy, money laundering and the facilitation of misdemeanor state prostitution offenses in violation of the U.S. Travel Act.”
Judge Brnovich ‘Could Not Overlook’ Any Longer
Elizabeth Nolan Brown, covering the trial for Reason magazine, reported on the judge’s statements this morning while declaring the mistrial.
“I, at the beginning of this, gave the government some leeway, because child sex trafficking, sex trafficking, are forms of prostitution,” Judge Brnovich said.”Yet, in the [government’s] opening and with every witness thereafter, it seems, the government has abused that leeway.”
Brnovich confirmed that the opening statement from federal prosecutor Reggie Jones “was close to causing mistrial,” and that the government, despite agreeing “to minimize the focus on child sex trafficking” after that, continued attempting to prejudice the jurors.
Although Brnovich clarified that she didn’t “see any of these [instances] as intentional misconduct, the cumulative effect of all of that is something that I can’t overlook and won’t overlook. So, the motion for mistrial is granted. I will call the jury in to dismiss them and then we will set a date a couple weeks out to talk about when we can reconvene.”
For more of XBIZ’s coverage of the Backpage trial, click here.
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