Backpage trial will continue next week despite James Larkin's sudden death

The federal criminal trial of former executives and employees of the Backpage.com website, which prosecutors said was used to facilitate prostitution, will proceed as scheduled next week, despite the death of the key defendant, James Larkin.

In U.S. District Court in Phoenix, a federal judge will consider last-minute preparations for trial, mainly readying a jury, at a hearing this afternoon.

Larkin, who helped turn the alternative weekly Phoenix New Times into a chain that took over the venerated Village Voice in New York, died by suicide Monday, days before the trial was set to open in U.S. District Court in Phoenix.

Larkin, along with longtime New Times editor Michael Lacey, had dodged both criminal charges and civil penalties for years. They argued that they merely hosted ads and were shielded from liability by federal law and First Amendment protections.

But federal prosecutors brought charges in 2018 based largely on internal emails that showed the website actively moderated ads to keep up a patina of deniability. One Backpage employee described it to investigators as putting “lipstick on a pig.”

Read: Larkin's life and legacy James Larkin, New Times and Backpage executive who faced charges of aiding prostitution, dead at 74

Larkin died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Superior, a rural town about an hour east of Phoenix, the police department there confirmed. Larkin, 74, lived in Paradise Valley.

An initial trail for Lacey, Larkin and other Backpage executives ended in a mistrial in 2021. The retrial was set to start next week.

The judge last week denied a final request from a Larkin attorney to delay the trial. The reason for the request was not outlined in minutes of the hearing.

The minutes do show Larkin attended that hearing in person.

An attorney for Larkin notified the court of the death in an order filed Tuesday.

Also on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Diane Humetewa said the court was aware of Larkin's passing, but she would "nonetheless expect the parties to prepare for trial to commence on the current scheduled date."

She asked both prosecution and defense attorneys to prepare questions for potential jurors, asking if they had heard of the news and whether it would affect their ability to evaluate the evidence fairly.

The trial is scheduled to begin Tuesday, Aug. 8.

The parties in the case will appear before Judge Humetewa at the Sandra Day O'Connor United States Courthouse on Friday, "to discuss a dismissal of the superseding indictment against Mr. Larkin" according to a notice filed Tuesday.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Backpage trial to continue after death of James Larkin