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Bruce Feder (AZ Bar No. 004832)

FEDER LAW OFFICE, P.A.

2930 E. Camelback Road, Suite 160

Phoenix, Arizona 85016

Telephone: 602.257.0135

bf@federlawpa.com

Knapp Counsel for Scott Spear

Eric W. Kessler, Esq. (AZ Bar No. 009158)

KESSLER LAW GROUP

9237 E. Via De Ventura

Suite 230

Scottsdale, AZ 85258

Telephone: 480.644.0093

Eric@kesslerlawgroup.net

Attorneys for Scott Spear

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE DISTRICT OF ARIZONA 

United States of America,

Plaintiff,

vs.

Scott Spear, et al., 

 

Defendants.

Case No. CR18-00422-PHX-DJH-003

DEFENDANT SPEAR’S JOINDER TO 

DEFENDANT BRUNST’S MOTION 

TO SEEK ADMISSION OF 

BRUNST’S TESTIMONY RE: STATE 

OF MIND

(Assigned to the Hon. Diane J. Humetewa)

 Defendant Scott Spear hereby files his Joinder in Defendant Brunst’s Motion to 

Seek Admission of Brunst’s Testimony Re: State of Mind (Dkt. 1879). As it pertains to 

Mr. Spear, and similar to the information contained in the Brunst motion, the below 

information is some of the anticipated testimony he would assert regarding his good faith 

belief his actions/inactions from 2004-2018 were legal and protected by federal law:

Case 2:18-cr-00422-DJH Document 1888 Filed 10/22/23 Page 1 of 5
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• In 2004, Mr. Spear was assigned the responsibility for overseeing the

Backpage.com website that Carl Ferrer had developed and was going to operate. 

This job was in addition to Mr. Spears’s many other responsibilities as Executive 

Vice President of Village Voice Media.

• Backpage.com was designed to compete with Craigslist and to garner a share of

the free online classified market that Craigslist dominated.

• Backpage (BP) and/or Village Voice Media (VVM) recognized the necessity.

for professional legal advice in managing the operations and content of the

site in accordance with current laws and regulations. They retained in-house 

lawyers Steve Suskin and Elizabeth McDougal and outside counsel, including but 

not limited to James Hemphill, Sam Fifer, Hemanshu Nigam, Mark Sableman, 

Don Moon, James Grant, and others to assist them in this work.

• The applicability and protections of the First amendment and the CDA Section 

230 to the BP moderation procedures were the subject of many communications 

with Mr. Spear.

• For instance, in late 2009, VVMH in-house counsel Steve Suskin commissioned

attorney Mark Sableman (a partner at Thompson Coburn in St. Louis where Mr.

Sableman specializes in media and information technology law) to prepare a

memorandum to assess the issue of whether Backpage’s operations created

liability for promoting prostitution. His 31 page memo relied heavily on the

provisions of Section 230 and the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. His

memo (and conclusion) is titled: “Why Village Voice Media’s Backpage.com

Service Does Not Create Liability for Promoting Prostitution.”

• These lawyers talked to him, sent him emails with or without attachments, as well 

as other communications, discussing the propriety of the BP practices and/or 

suggesting changes to these practices including but not limited to aggregation and 

moderation, and the termination of business with and/or discontinuation of 

connection to The Erotic Review, William Mercer and others.

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• Information about the M.A., McKenna, Cooper, Hoffman, Dart litigation, as well 

as the Washington Grand Jury investigation, and other Backpage and Craigslist 

litigation regarding their practices operating their respective sites, was sent to Mr. 

Spear, read by him, explained to him and/or known to him from reading reviews

and other publications and websites, as were the California prosecutions of Ferrer, 

Lacey and Larkin and the PSI congressional investigation;

• Had Mr. Spear received information that the Backpage/Village Voice Media

practices were illegal and/or not legally protected, he would have resigned. An 

example of this was the Washington state statute that was enjoined in the 

McKenna decision. There were discussions that if the injunctive relief litigation 

was unsuccessful, Backpage would be closed in the state of Washington and 

throughout the United States. As indicated in the McKenna decision, requiring a 

website to implement age verification of ad posters violates the First Amendment, 

and this was a reason that such practice was not implemented by BP; and

• When Mr. Spear became aware of the NAAG, NCMEC, Polaris, and Auburn 

Society assertions, as well as the media criticisms asserted in the present trial, he 

was further assured at the time by/from the above sources that these assertions 

and criticisms were not binding and were protected by the First Amendment and 

CDA Section 230 protections.

 In addition to his testimony, Mr. Spear would also anticipate calling as witnesses 

some or all of the above-named lawyers to discuss some of the information that was 

transmitted by them. 

 If Mr. Spear will not be allowed to testify to what his intent was as it pertains to 

his work at Backpage, and his good faith belief that his actions/inactions were legal and 

protected by law, together with the bases upon which he relied for his good faith beliefs, 

he will be forced not to testify.

/ / /

/ / /

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RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED this 22nd day of October, 2023.

FEDER LAW OFFICE PA

KESSLER LAW GROUP

s/ Bruce Feder

s/ Eric W. Kessler

Bruce Feder and Eric W. Kessler

Attorneys for Scott Spear

Case 2:18-cr-00422-DJH Document 1888 Filed 10/22/23 Page 4 of 5
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CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE 

I hereby certify that on October 22, 2023, I electronically transmitted the attached 

document to the Clerk’s Office using the CM/ECF System for filing and transmittal of 

a Notice of Electronic Filing to the CM/ECF registrants who have entered their 

appearance as counsel of record. 

Clerk of the Court

United States District Court

Sandra Day O’Connor U.S. Courthouse

401 W. Washington Street

Phoenix, AZ 85003

Efiling: https://ecf.azd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl

THE HONORABLE DIANE J. HEMETEWA

United States District Court

Email: Hemetewa_chambers@azd.uscourts.gov

Erin E. McCampbell, emccampbell@lglaw.com

Paul J. Cambria, pcambria@lglaw.com

Gary S. Lincenberg, glincenberg@birdmarella.com

Gopi K. Panchapakesan, gpanchapakesan@birdmarella.com

David S. Eisenberg, david@deisenbergplc.com

Joy Malby Bertrand, Joy.Bertrand@gmail.com

Attorneys for Defendants

Kevin Rapp Kevin.Rapp@usdoj.gov

Andrew Stone Andrew.Stone@usdoj.gov

Margaret Perlmeter Margaret.Perlmeter@usdoj.gov

Austin Berry berry2.austin@usdoj.gov

Peter Kozinets Peter.Kozinets@usdoj.gov

Daniel Boyle Daniel.Boyle2@usdoj.gov

Attorneys for United States of America

By: Eric W. Kessler. 

Case 2:18-cr-00422-DJH Document 1888 Filed 10/22/23 Page 5 of 5