Opening statements begin in website founder's 2nd trial over ads promoting prostitution
Federal prosecutors in Phoenix say a founder of the classified ad site Backpage
PHOENIX — A founder of the classified site Backpage.com and four employees carefully strategized how to bring in ads for prostitution to maintain their top-earning platform, a prosecutor said Thursday at a federal trial in Phoenix.
Attorneys for Michael Lacey and the other four defendants countered that their clients had nothing to do with the daily operations of classified ads.
The clash over culpability was at the center of opening statements in the second trial of all five on charges of facilitating prostitution and laundering money in what authorities say was a scheme to knowingly sell ads for sex on the classified site.
“They made money on one section — adults, specifically prostitution,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Stone said. “There are such things as legal escorts. The evidence is going to show the term escort used on Backpage, that's not what it meant.”
Paul Cambria, who represents Lacey, described him as “an old time newspaper guy” who focused on the articles across several publications.
He also argued customers of Backpage bought ad space and posted the content themselves. The platform isn't responsible if someone answers an ad and an illegal act takes place later, Cambria said.
“If a phone is used in a crime, we don't prosecute the phone company. We prosecute the people who use the phone,” Cambria said.
Their first trial ended in a mistrial in September 2021 when a judge concluded prosecutors had too many references to child sex trafficking in a case where no one faced such a charge.
Lacey founded the Phoenix New Times weekly newspaper with James Larkin, who was charged in the case and died by suicide in July. Lacey and
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