Backpage.com was a classified advertising website founded in 2004 by the alternative newspaper chain New Times Inc./New Times Media (later known as Village Voice Media or VVM) as a rival to Craigslist.Similar to Craigslist, Backpage let users post ads to categories such as personals, automotive, rentals, jobs and adult services. It soon became the second largest online classified site in the United States.Craigslist closed its "Adult Services" section in 2010 in response to pressure from state attorneys general and other critics claiming the section facilitated prostitution. Much of Craigslist's share of the adult ad market migrated to other sites, with Backpage being the main beneficiary.Craigslist's former critics focused on Backpage, which resisted moves to censor the site until January 2017; Backpage closed their adult section prior to a Congressional hearing.On April 6, 2018, the U.S. Department of Justice announced the seizure and takedown of Backpage, part of a 93-count indictment of seven former owners and executives, charging them with facilitating prostitution under the U.S. Travel Act, as well as money laundering and conspiracy.In July 2018, a superseding indictment increased the number of counts to 100. In August 2018, one defendant accepted a plea deal. The remaining six defendants pled not guilty to all charges, and a trial by jury began on September 1, 2021.On September 14, 2021, federal Judge Susan Brnovich declared a mistrial in the case, saying the prosecution and their witnesses made excessive references to child sex trafficking in a case where the defendants are not charged with that crime. This "is something I can't overlook and will not overlook," she said, setting a status hearing for October 5. At that hearing, Brnovich scheduled a new trial for February 22, 2022.Brnovich recused herself over a conflict of interest with her husband who was Attorney General on October 29, 2021, and federal Judge Diane Humetewa was chosen by lot to replace her. (Humetewa became the fourth judge to be assigned the case so far.) Reason magazine reported that a new trial had been delayed as the defense appealed Humetewa's denial of a motion to dismiss the case.On September 21, 2022, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied the defendants' request that the court reverse Humetewa and dismiss the case because a new trial would violate the U.S. Constitution's prohibition on Double Jeopardy. The panel wrote that "the government's misconduct" during the trial "was not so egregious as to compel a finding" that prosecutors intended to provoke a mistrial, the legal standard for dismissal in this instance.On July 31, 2023, co-owner and co-founder James Larkin committed suicide about one week before the new trial was scheduled to start.In November 2023 a jury found co-founder Michael Lacey guilty of one count of money laundering and acquitted him of another money laundering charge, but deadlocked on 84 other charges leading to a second mistrial.
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