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MICHAEL BAILEY

United States Attorney

District of Arizona

KEVIN M. RAPP (Ariz. Bar No. 014249, kevin.rapp@usdoj.gov)

MARGARET PERLMETER (Ariz. Bar No. 024805, margaret.perlmeter@usdoj.gov) PETER S. KOZINETS (Ariz. Bar No. 019856, peter.kozinets@usdoj.gov) 

ANDREW C. STONE (Ariz. Bar No. 026543, andrew.stone@usdoj.gov)

JOHN J. KUCERA (Cal. Bar No. 274184, john.kucera@usdoj.gov) 

Assistant U.S. Attorneys

40 N. Central Avenue, Suite 1800

Phoenix, Arizona 85004-4408

Telephone (602) 514-7500

BRIAN BENCZKOWSKI 

Assistant Attorney General

Criminal Division, U.S. Department of Justice

REGINALD E. JONES (Miss. Bar No. 102806, reginald.jones4@usdoj.gov) 

Senior Trial Attorney, U.S. Department of Justice

Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section 

950 Pennsylvania Ave N.W., Room 2116

Washington, D.C. 20530

Telephone (202) 616-2807 

Attorneys for Plaintiff

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE DISTRICT OF ARIZONA

United States of America,

Plaintiff, 

vs. 

Michael Lacey, et al.,

Defendants.

CR-18-00422-PHX-SMB

UNITED STATES’ NOTICE OF 

REBUTTAL EXPERT WITNESSES

Pursuant to Rules 702, 703, 704 and 705, Fed. R. Evid., the following witnesses may 

give testimony that might be construed as falling within the purview of these rules of 

evidence. Through discovery and subsequent disclosures, specific reports and analyses have 

been or will be directed to Defendants regarding the specific nature of the expected 

testimony, if any, to be given by these individuals. To the extent not previously disclosed in 

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discovery, subsequent disclosures to Defendants will isolate the reports, analyses, summaries 

and other findings associated with any potential expert testimony. This notice is meant 

merely as a broader initial overview of the individuals and subjects the government may seek 

to present evidence of by way of expert testimony.

1. Special Agent Brian Fichtner, California Department of Justice: Operation of 

Backpage’s Website 

Special Agent Brian Fichtner has been a law enforcement officer with the California 

Department of Justice (CalDOJ) since 1998. From February 2012 to April 2017, he served 

in the CalDOJ Bureau of Investigation eCrime Unit. Special Agent Fichtner and his 

colleagues conducted undercover online operations concerning the placement of ads on 

Backpage. Special Agent Fichtner prepared reports and made contemporaneous video 

recordings of his interactions with the Backpage website, and he also spoke with Backpage 

representatives, including Carl Ferrer and Elizabeth McDougal. 

Special Agent Fichtner will provide testimony at trial about how the Sacramento area 

section of www.Backpage.com (Backpage) looked and operated, about the process for 

posting ads in the “adult”/“escorts” and non-“adult” sections of Backpage, and about the 

types of undercover investigations that CalDOJ performed relating to Backpage, including 

responses he and his colleagues received from the placement of undercover ads. He will 

testify about his observations regarding the website consistent with the reports he prepared 

and the evidence he gathered concerning those investigations, including video recordings 

and screen captures showing the website’s operations. He is expected to testify consistent 

with the investigative reports that he prepared.

While the government does not believe that Special Agent Fichtner’s testimony will 

involve any opinion testimony, it includes his information in this Notice out of an abundance 

of caution and in the event that any of any his testimony is deemed to constitute expert 

opinion testimony. His opinions are based on his training and experience in the area of 

eCrime and electronic evidence gathering. His curriculum vitae is attached as Exhibit A. 

The government will also separately provide the defense with copies of reports that Special 

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Agent Fichtner authored regarding his investigative work concerning Backpage when he was 

assigned to the CalDOJ eCrime Unit. 

2. Lieutenant Detective Donna Gavin, Boston Police Department: 

Prostitution/Human Trafficking/Child Sex Trafficking Expert

From July 2009 to October 2016, Lieutenant Detective Donna Gavin served as a 

Sergeant Detective/Commander of the Boston Police Department’s Human Trafficking Unit. 

She later served, from May 2016 to April 2019, as the Lieutenant Detective for the Boston 

Police Department’s Crimes Against Children and Human Trafficking Units. She has 

extensive experience investigating prostitution, human trafficking and child sex trafficking 

crimes involving victims who were advertised on Backpage. On August 13, 2015, 

Lieutenant Detective Gavin provided a declaration in the Northern District of Illinois that 

described Backpage’s role in the Boston-area sex trade. Lieutenant Detective Gavin is 

expected to testify consistent with her August 13, 2015 declaration, and will provide 

additional relevant details about Backpage’s operations in the Boston area. She is also 

expected to testify that, in her professional experience as a law enforcement officer for over 

30 years, the “adult” section of Backpage not only contained ads for illegal activity, including 

prostitution, solicitation and trafficking, but it was also the primary source for such ads and 

was well known for that purpose in the sex trafficking industry in Boston, Massachusetts, 

until the site was shut down in 2018. Further, Lieutenant Detective Gavin is expected to 

testify that Backpage “adult” section provided a vehicle and anonymity for its users who 

exploited and trafficked young women and girls, that it provided no legitimate service and 

that nearly all the cases the Boston Police Department’s Human Trafficking Unit found 

associated with Backpage involved pimp-controlled prostitution.

While the government does not believe that Lieutenant Detective Gavin’s testimony 

will involve any opinion testimony, it provides this information out of an abundance of 

caution and in the event that any of any her testimony is deemed to constitute expert opinion 

testimony. Lieutenant Detective Gavin’s opinions are based on her training and experience 

in the areas of human trafficking, crimes against children and sexual assault. Lieutenant 

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Detective Gavin’s curriculum vitae is attached as Exhibit B. 

3. Detective-Sergeant Thomas Adam Umporowicz Jr., Seattle Police Department

Vice/High Risk Victims Unit and Human Trafficking Task Force:

Prostitution/Human Trafficking/Child Sex Trafficking Expert

Detective-Sergeant Thomas Adam Umporowicz Jr. is the Detective-Sergeant in 

charge of the Seattle Police Department’s Vice/High Risk Victims Unit, a position that he 

has held since 2014. He has also served as the Human Trafficking Task Force Sergeant for 

the Seattle Police Department. He has more than 30 years of law enforcement experience, 

and has trained other law enforcement agencies in the United States in the areas of human 

trafficking and internet crimes against children. 

On August 14, 2015, Detective-Sergeant Umporowicz provided a declaration that was 

filed in the Northern District of Illinois. The declaration described Backpage as the primary 

website in the Seattle, Washington area for those looking to solicit a prostitute, post 

prostitution ads or traffic prostitutes and minors. In the declaration, Detective-Sergeant 

Umporowicz opined that in his professional experience:

[T]he adult section of Backpage.com not only contains ads for illegal activity, including prostitution, solicitation and trafficking, but it is a primary source 

for such ads and is well known for that purpose in the sex trafficking industry 

in the city of Seattle and State of Washington. But the way Backpage.com 

operates and the anonymity it provides its users makes it more difficult for us 

to identify and arrest and prosecute these offenders. It is the Seattle Police Department Vice/High Risk Victims Unit position that removing the adult 

section of Backpage.com would greatly assist to disrupt these sex traffickers’ 

easy means of communication and connection for these illegal activities and therefore would reduce demand for, and access to, the sex trafficking industry 

within the city of Seattle and the State of Washington. This would be useful 

in protecting the women and children who are victimized by those numerous 

individuals who use Backpage.com for these unlawful purposes. In our 

experience, the adult section of Backpage.com seems to serve no legal 

purpose.

Detective-Sergeant Umprowicz is expected to testify consistent with his declaration, 

and is expected to provide other pertinent details and observations about Backpage’s 

operations in the Seattle area through Backpage’s closure in 2018. He is also expected to 

testify about the evolution of prostitution and human trafficking in the Seattle area from the 

pre-internet era through the rise of Backpage to the post-Backpage era. He will explain how 

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the ease-of-use, convenience and relative anonymity of using Backpage (both as a “john” 

and as a prostitute or pimp) increased the demand for prostitution services and the supply of 

persons who were advertised as prostitutes. He is expected to testify that Backpage 

established a near-monopoly on online prostitution advertising in the Seattle area. He will 

also explain how, following Backpage’s shutdown, the sex trade has partly reverted to streetlevel prostitution (in hotel lobbies, casinos and on the streets), which has reduced demand 

and supply and seriously disrupted the sex trade in the Seattle area. He will also explain 

that Backpage was continually put on notice by law enforcement of its facilitation of 

prostitution through the issuance of search warrants and subpoenas across the country. 

Detective-Sergeant Umprowicz’s opinions are based on his training and experience 

in the areas of law enforcement, prostitution, and human and child sex trafficking. His

curriculum vitae is attached as Exhibit C. 

4. Robert Spectre, Founder and Chief Executive of childsafe.ai: Impact of 

Backpage’s Closure on Online Sex Trafficking and Prostitution

In April 2019, Spectre authored the report “Beyond Backpage, Buying and Selling 

Sex in The United States One Year Later.”1 The report summarizes the immediate online 

disruption following April 2018 when Backpage was seized and the Stop Enabling Sex 

Traffickers Act (SESTA) and Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) were signed into 

law. Spectre’s analysis concluded that since the events in April 2018 (including Backpage’s 

shut down), the demand for purchasing sex online has been reduced drastically.

Spectre’s background includes tracking online sex trafficking beginning in 2014, 

when he was contacted by Polaris (https://polarisproject.org/human-trafficking/facts)

through his company twilio.org,a start-up company that developed text (short code) 

technology. That technology is utilized by many different businesses, but was also used to 

 

1 https://childsafe.ai/beyond-backpage-buying-and-selling-sex-in-the-united-states- one-year-later

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reach victims of sex trafficking. Since Twilio, Spectre has worked with the Cook County 

Sherriff’s Office and the New York Police Department to develop deterrence platforms 

focused on combating sex trafficking.

In 2017, Spectre, while working with the NYPD’s Human Trafficking Unit, 

developed a demand deterrence platform that focused on the demand side of human 

trafficking. The platform would capture phone numbers of “johns” who responded to decoy 

ads posted by NYPD on Backpage. When a decoy ad was posted, approximately 150 

responses would be captured in a two hour-time frame. Since Backpage was seized,

responses have dropped to 20-30 per day, spread among approximately 12 different websites. 

Spectre’s additional qualifications will be provided separately to Defendants. 

The government reserves the right to question the experts regarding other matters that 

may be raised during cross-examination by Defendants, based upon testimony provided by 

defense experts (if any), or other witnesses and evidence introduced by Defendants. 

Respectfully submitted this 17th day of June, 2019.

MICHAEL BAILEY

United States Attorney District of Arizona

s/ Kevin M. Rapp

KEVIN M. RAPP

MARGARET PERLMETER

PETER S. KOZINETS

ANDREW C. STONE

JOHN J. KUCERA

Assistant U.S. Attorneys

BRIAN BENCZKOWSKI

Assistant Attorney General

Criminal Division, U.S. Department of Justice

REGINALD E. JONES

Senior Trial Attorney

U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Division

Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section

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Certificate of Service:

I hereby certify that on June 17, 2019, 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.

s/ Angela Schuetta

Angela Schuetta

U.S. Attorney’s Office

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