SACRAMENTO—A Sacramento County judge on Wednesday signaled that he’s prepared to dismiss charges against current and former corporate officers of the online classifieds site Backpage.com, finding the broad immunity of the Communications Decency Act shields the men from prosecution in a sex-trafficking case.
In a seven-page tentative ruling, Superior Court Judge Michael Bowman said that in publishing “adult services” ads on Backpage and two other online classifieds sites, CEO Carl Ferrer and former shareholders Michael Lacey and James Larkin were “at most” republishing content created by third parties.
