Backpage Sues

[Sweet Emily J 172062]

[B][U][SIZE=3]Website targeted by sheriff for adult escort ads sues[/SIZE][/U][/B]

By [URL="http://www.chicagotribune.com/chi-jason-meisner-staff.html#navtype=byline"]Jason Meisner[/URL] | July 23, 2015


[URL]http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-backpage-lawsuit-first-amendment-met-20150723-story.html[/URL]


[QUOTE]
[I]For years, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart has grabbed headlines in his fight to get online classified ad sites to drop their adult services sections, which he says are a haven for pimps and human traffickers.

But one of the websites recently in Dart's crosshairs, Backpage.com, is fighting back, arguing in federal court Thursday that the sheriff's successful efforts to get several major credit card companies to block their cards from being used to buy ads violate freedom of speech protections and have illegally decimated the site's business model.

Lawyers for Backpage, which is similar to Craigslist, filed a lawsuit against Dart earlier this week asking U.S. District Judge John Tharp to issue a restraining order to keep Dart from lobbying the credit card companies through letters or other contact â?? a campaign that recently prompted Visa and MasterCard to agree to pull their cards from use on the site. American Express took such action early this year.

The lawsuit also calls for a preliminary injunction requiring Dart to write new letters to the credit card companies rescinding his previous statements, as well as compensation for lost revenue and punitive damages "to provide punishment and as deterrence for Sheriff Dart's intentional conduct recklessly indifferent to protected rights."

After more than an hour and a half of arguments, Tharp said he would issue a ruling on the restraining order as early as Monday.

The lawsuit centers on letters Dart sent to Visa and MasterCard in late June on the sheriff's official letterhead asking the companies to "immediately cease and desist from allowing your credit cards to be used to place ads on â?¦ Backpage.com," which the sheriff said promotes and facilitates sex trafficking.

Within 48 hours of the letters being sent, Visa and MasterCard announced their withdrawal from the site, prompting Dart to hold a news conference to declare victory. He also lashed out at Backpage for what he said was its refusal to acknowledge how pimps and traffickers use the ads in its adult section.

In his sharpest remarks, Dart criticized the company for suggesting, as it has in the past, that it partners with law enforcement to root out such traffic.

"That's insane. To be honest with you, I have heard more thoughtful logic out of my 5-year-old," Dart told reporters. "They try to spin this thing where they are our biggest asset and they are helping us. I have often told them directly, we have never had any problems arresting prostitutes. The difficult part has always been the pimps and the traffickers, the ones who are the really evil people here.

"And now you have just set up this wall of anonymity they hide behind," he added. "And somehow you're helping us? â?¦ Here's how you can help us â?? stop doing that."

Lawyers for the website argued in the lawsuit that Dart's veiled threats violated the First Amendment rights of the ad posters. They also said the "credit card companies' acquiescence to his pressure" have cut off nearly all revenue for the site.

"This affects not only adult escort ads but also other ads for dating, housing, services, trades, and sales of goods, among others. In his zeal to prevent the few improper ads that users may post despite Backpage.com's efforts to prevent them, Sheriff Dart has taken it upon himself to eliminate the website altogether," the lawsuit alleged.

In court Thursday, Assistant State's Attorney Sisavanh Baker acknowledged that Dart has no legal authority to order the credit card companies to stop accepting payments through the site. But the letters were the sheriff making an appeal "as a father and a concerned citizen," which he has every right to do.

"Sheriff Dart is hamstrung," Baker said. "He cannot bring any legal action. All he can do is advocate ... and that's exactly what he has done here."
Backpage.com includes millions of user ads in a variety of categories â?? roommates, real estate and jobs, for example. But over the past several years the site has surpassed Craigslist as the focus of human trafficking concerns among law enforcement.

In April, Backpage published 1.4 million adult services ads across the country, with the company bringing in at least $9 million, the sheriff's office said.

Meanwhile, since 2009, Cook County sheriff's officers have made more than 800 arrests by using information supplied in the ads. Those include more than 50 arrests for sex trafficking, involuntary servitude or prostitution promotion.

As the lawyers argued the merits of the lawsuit Thursday, one floor above Tharp's courtroom, convicted pimp Arnell Misher was being sentenced to 10 years in prison for prostituting three girls on Backpage in the summer of 2012. Prosecutors said Misher, 31, created an online ad, which included nude photos of a 17-year-old victim, and later personally brought a 13-year-old girl to the "track," an area known for prostituting.

Last year, Cook County prosecutors partnered with Republican Sen. Mark Kirk on a federal law that would allow criminal charges against operators if they show "reckless disregard" for the crimes being committed as a result of the ads, including pimping, prostitution and kidnapping.[/I]

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