PHOENIX (CN) — A federal judge says she doesn’t have enough facts to grant restitution to 12 women who were sex trafficked as minors on the classified advertising website Backpage.com between 2014 and 2016.
For nearly four hours Friday afternoon, developmental pediatrician Sharon Cooper explained the physical and psychological harm often experienced by sex trafficking victims, estimating the amount of restitution that should be paid to the victims by two convicted former executives of the now-defunct website through which thousands of women and girls were trafficked for nearly 14 years.
But U.S. District Judge Diane Humetewa said analysis and estimated costs are not specific enough for her to order the defendants, Scott Spear and John Brunst, to pay.
“I can’t say based on a victim’s impact statement what are the costs associated with addressing those issues. Where is that information?” she demanded of U.S. attorney Kevin Rapp, who apparently didn’t have an answer.
Prosecutors filed a detailed list of 12 individuals seeking restitution, breaking down injuries they or their advocates claim extend from their time trafficked on Backpage and estimated costs of those injuries.
The document was filed under seal, but Cooper gave a few examples in court, including $6,381 annually for post-traumatic stress disorder treatment and $19,446 annually for bipolar disorder treatment, just for one of the 12 victims. She estimated the lifetime cost of being raped to amount to more than $122,000. Many of the victims were raped between 10 and 12 times per day while they were trafficked, she added.
But without a bill of costs for specific treatments undergone or already scheduled, Humetewa said she can’t entertain the cost estimates.
“If I give an award for a specific type of treatment, what if the victim never receives it?” she asked the government.
Phoenix New Times founders Michael Lacey and James Larkin created Backpage in 2004 as a competitor to Craigslist, selling classified ads in hundreds of categories. But before long, the majority of Backpage’s profits came from illegal prostitution ads, peddling thousands of women and girls through the site each year.
Lacey, Spear and Brunst were convicted on various prostitution and money laundering counts in 2023 and sentenced to prison in August.
Spear, former executive vice president of Backpage, was convicted on two counts of conspiracy, 17 prostitution counts and 21 money laundering counts. Brunst, former chief financial officer, was convicted of conspiracy to facilitate prostitution — but acquitted on each prostitution charge — and 31 counts of money laundering.
Humetewa acquitted each of more than a dozen money laundering counts, but sentenced each to 10 years in prison followed by three years of probation. The federal judge gave Lacey five years for his single money laundering conviction, but Lacey is still awaiting a third trial, in which the government will bring forth charges the previous jury failed to agree on. The first was declared a mistrial in 2021.
Though prosecutors were barred from entering evidence regarding the murder of girls sold through the site during trial, the rules of evidence are lifted for sentencing and restitution purposes. The government seeks restitution for a 16-year-old who was murdered by a john in Illinois in 2016.
Though only identified in court by the initials D.R., the details of her murder and the subsequent case discussed Friday afternoon match that of Desiree Robinson, whose mother Yvonne Ambrose testified at the defendants’ sentencing.
D.R.’s family requested restitution for burial and funeral costs, but Gopi Panchapakesan, defense attorney for John Brunst, told Humetewa that a restitution order for $14,000 is already pending in the Illinois state court in which D.R.’s killer was convicted.
Humetewa seemed unconvinced that D.R.’s family should be paid out twice.
Restitution proceedings are scheduled to continue Monday morning, when Humetewa said she expects more documentation from the government to help her make an informed decision. Rapp said he expects to call two economists as witnesses Monday, but Humetewa remained unsatisfied.
“How do I have the authority to impose a restitution order based on an economist’s report of what a victim may or may not do in the future?” she asked.
Humetewa said she’s considering giving the government and the victims’ private counsel more time to come up with specific information, but she hasn’t hinted at how much time she might give.