This was a great non-fiction story about a lawyer who dedicated several years of her career to fighting against sex trafficking through a craigslist type site called Backpage. I did not know anything about this case prior to reading the story and learned a lot about both the legalities of stopping a website that sells women as well as the specifics of this crime and the men behind it. Despite there being quite a bit of legal jargon and a lot of people who played different roles in the case mentioned throughout, I still found the story very easy to follow and quite engaging. I did find the last chapter a little less interesting because I felt it was a bit anticlimactic, but sometimes that is just how non-fiction stories end up! I definitely would recommend this book to anyone interested in the story or who is interested in real crime/court stories and/or sex trafficking crimes. I so appreciate Netgalley and the Publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this book as an advance reader copy!

By 2012, human trafficking was the world’s second largest criminal business, next only to the manufacturing and sale of narcotics.

 Prosecutor Maggy Krell discovered that the majority of sex-trafficking victims in the United States were not immigrants but were born in the United States. Disproportionate number of victims were (and still are) African American girls and minors. Though she started her legal career in San Joaquin County prosecuting street pimps and motels that facilitated sex trafficking, she would later take on one of the most powerful classified advertising websites, Backpage.com.

Though Backpage did advertise general goods for sale to make the site look legitimate, it made the bulk of its money from ads featuring children for sex. By 2014 Backpage operated in eight hundred cities around the world. A small transaction fee was charged for every ad, but these ads generated millions of dollars a month in profit for the company and that was just in California.

Krell takes us step-by-step in the investigation, prosecution, setbacks, and ultimate takedown of Backpage. Not only did the company have unlimited funds to hire the best attorneys, but it also afforded them the opportunity to present themselves in the best possible light to law enforcement. What was more complicated though were the issues of free speech and privacy as well as the culpability of websites in engaging in criminal behavior. These issues continue today.

Krell knows her readers and explains the legal nuances in engaging lay terms. She includes her interactions with victims and advocates as well as legal professionals.

Though this is a memoir, it reads more like a breathtaking crime story. The writing is sharp and memorable and Krell builds the tension, hooks us from the beginning and doesn’t let go.

More importantly Taking Down Backpage reminds us of a devastating crisis that society shouldn’t forget and what we must do about it now.

Taking Down Backpage
by Maggy Krell
Pub Date: January 11, 2022
New York University Press
This book tells the story of the dedicated and determined prosecutor who vowed to bring down the CEO of Backpage, a classified advertising website suspected of being used as a sex trafficking platform, especially the trafficking of minors. The story was well written in easy-to-understand language but I found much of it a little too dry and factual.
Thanks to NY University Press and NetGalley for the ARC. Maggy is Hero!
Kudos, Madam Krell, for your hard work and dedication to ensuring the reader understands what’s going on behind the scenes.
4 star

Well.....never did I imagine hearing about Backpage again...kind of like MySpace - been there done that. But who would have thought this was all happening on Backpage. Eye. opening book about the amazingly terrible things that can be filtered through such pages

Taking Down Backpage is a fascinating inside look of the work of Maggy Krell, a young California District Attorney, who aimed to stop sex trafficking in her area. It is a brief, but powerful memoir accounting the work she did to take down Backpage.com. I appreciated that they went after to those profiting from trafficking and not prosecuting the victims. I found it especially compelling to read about creative ways in which legal and law enforcement was able to gather information to charge companies for profiting from illegal activities. It’s maddening to learn how our current laws relating to the internet are inadequate and haven’t kept up with the myriad ways the internet and websites are used for criminal and unethical behavior. Krell also illustrates the role of vast privilege and wealth in regards to the justice system and evading prosecution. Taking Down Backpage is a compelling look behind the scenes of law enforcement and the legal system.

Thank you NYU Press and NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Taking Down Backpage - Maggie Krell
Nonfiction/Memoir, 192 pages

In 2003, Maggie Krell was a young prosecutor handling arraignments in San Joaquin County when she came across women being prosecuted for prostitution. At the time, the justice system's conception of sex trafficking was limited, focusing heavily on prosecuting prostitution and those who aided in the activity, with little on the books to combat trafficking, an element that involves force, fraud, or coercion. As her career progressed and she moved to the California Attorney General's Office, Krell remained interested in prosecuting sex trafficking cases and made a name for herself taking down street level trafficking operations. As she became more familiar with these types of cases she began to see Backpage.com, a website where people could post prostitution advertisements, as the country's (and world's) biggest trafficker. This book is Krell's account of how she used the legal system to "take down" Backpage, tracking her multi-year investigation, arrests, and various stages of prosecution.

This is not a book that discusses the debate over how best to prevent sex trafficking. This is a book specifically about the legal theories and steps that Krell and her team took to take down Backpage. The legal proceedings are discussed in immense detail, including nearly every courtroom appearance and conference. To that end, Krell's descriptions of her efforts to close Backpage highlight her dogged and single-minded approach, one that is fueled by her belief that her actions were innately justified because of her desire to protect exploited children. While I appreciated her tenacity, I do wish that she had spent more time discussing the larger debate surrounding Backpage's existence, particularly the argument that Backpage allowed sex workers consensually engaging in the industry to have more power in their decisions, such as being able to screen potential johns before a date. Krell also never fully addresses another point of tension surrounding Backpage's demise: that although Backpage itself was taken down, other websites have popped up that host the same content and not all of them are based in the United States, thus making it difficult for them to also be held accountable. Overall, I found the book engaging and cleanly written, but also lacking the depth that this serious issue deserves.

Rating: 7/10
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A giant online sex trafficking website, thousands of young women and men were used ceaselessly for profit. California prosecutor, Maggy Krell, shares her insight into the pursuit of justice and the hundreds of men and women on her team to remove this platform for good.

Taking Down Package was an interested true crime story focused on Maggy Krell's process in building a case against the owners/operators of Backpage for encouraging and effectively participating in human trafficking. It was a short read and focused on more on the legal aspects of the case than on sharing personal stories related to the victims on trafficking. It definitely demonstrated Krell's determination and perseverance in this case. An interesting read if you are interested in the "behind the scenes" process of taking down large organizations with many lawyers on retainer.

Taking Down Backpage is the story of how the author, a California criminal prosecutor, charged three billionaires with sex trafficking because of all the girls advertised for rent in their online advertising website.

First, let’s be clear. This is a memoir of a prosecutor’s most famous case. It is not a larger look at sex trafficking. There are scant stories about girls caught up within it. It only briefly touches upon how Backpage was created.

Taking Down Backpage is ultimately a backstage look at the pleasures and pitfalls of being a state prosecutor. Therefore, it would be an excellent choice for those interested in the law. It would also be useful for authors of legal thrillers.

Note that the prose is very workman-like in a “just the facts”-type of way. Still, the story itself is very compelling. 4 stars!

Thanks to NYU Press and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

I think many can agree that sex trafficking does not get the attention it should. Partly because of those whose names could and should come out. We just had the trial of Epstein's partner Ghislaine Maxwell and yet they didn't allow it to air. Of course, that has left a very sour taste in our mouths to say the least. The author did an excellent job sticking to this case and being a thorn in Backpage's side. Because she refused to give up, she was able to help so many when this site was eventually shut down.

What I am most disappointed with is when she does mention Epstein, she also brought up Trump being his great friend. However, I do feel that Bill Clinton was an even better one. But she conveniently leaves that out. I feel if you are going to mention the elephant in the room you should certainly do it in a fair manner.

She did go on to say that due to a bill that President Trump passed she was able to bring down Backpage. Overall, I thought it was a professionally written book. One that is horrible in content but so especially important at the same time.

We get a look at our flawed legal system and the ways in which we can improve victim advocacy. Krell also shared interesting insights about how prosecutors work cases and the steps in bringing a case forward to be charged. I learned a lot more about the case from Krell’s book and loved her passion!

Overall this was a quick, emotional, and difficult read. Taking Down Backpage also takes an important look at the devastating effects of sex trafficking in the US, and I think everyone should read it!

I am one of the naive women who never heard of “Backpage”. The topic is sex trafficking, which of course is a very serious matter of exploitation of any person; man, woman or child. It was not an easy book to read but I give Ms Krell kudos for taking on this difficult topic. I would recommend every adult read this, if only to enlighten themselves to what is happening to so many people.
Thank you to NetGalley, Maggy Krell and NYU Press for allowing me to read this ARC. This review is my honest opinion.

Very informative book, about taking down a group that was the world largest sex trafficker. Human tracking is something that more people need to know about. Because the evil people that do this pretty much hid in plain sight. And many of them think they are above the law. This book helped bring it to light. But the book stresses it’s not over, there’s still work to be down.

This book tells the story of the dedicated and determined prosecutor who vowed to bring down the CEO of Backpage, a classified advertising website suspected of being used as a sex trafficking platform, especially the trafficking of minors. The story was well written in easy-to-understand language but I found much of it a little too dry and factual. Kudos to Maggy Krell and her team for their relentless pursuit of Backpage's key personnel. The sheer volume of paperwork was exhausting to consider. It's so sad to think that Backpage has probably been replaced by one or more sites devoted to the same practice. It's also sad to think about the damage that has been done to so many females as a result of being sold through ads on Backpage.

Thank you to NYU Press via Netgalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.

Publication Date: January 11, 2022

“I learned that justice doesn’t keep score. There is really no such thing as a win or a loss. Each day, you go in, you do your very best work, you seek justice, and you pray to God that you can leave a lasting impact and make your community a little safer.”

Maggy Krell did make our communities a little safer… at least for the most part. More on that later.

I had never heard of Backpage before but when I saw the title of this book I was really curious and wanted to read more.

These days I feel like I hear more about people wanting to legalize prostitution and ‘sex work’ or the ever-expanding ‘sexual freedom’ rights people apparently don’t have enough of than I hear about anyone fighting human trafficking.

This book was an encouragement that there are people who are fighting the second largest criminal business in the world— human trafficking— and are having success!

“This is a case about a new generation of slave traders who have created an online marketplace to exploit the most vulnerable people in our society, all while pocketing millions and millions of dollars each month.”

What is Backpage?

“In 2013, the aider and abettor and the commercial sex industry’s biggest beneficiary was a website: Backpage.com. Virtually every sex-trafficking case we prosecuted included an online ad posted on Backpage.com. The brothels from Operation Wilted Flower used it to advertise. The street traffickers… often sold victims to more than ten men a night using Backpage. Gangs used it to move victims around in a horrifying network of exploitation and violence. There was no doubt that Backpage exponentially expanded this growing criminal industry.”

Operating in over 800 cities globally, Backpage was a website made to look like Craigslist, selling/listing things in a variety of categories: furniture, cars, etc. But “90-100% of their revenue was from the ‘escort’ section.”

It became a years-long battle that Krell undertook to try to shutdown this website facilitating the selling of trafficked women and children every night and profiting from this illegal exploitation.

The Legal Battle

Maggy Krell kept a post-it note on her desk with her three goals on this case:

Get a felony conviction.

Shut down the website.

Fix the CDA.

The CDA is the Communications Decency Act (CDA) which protects internet service providers from liability for the words or actions of their users. This is the shield Backpage was hiding behind with the charges brought against them. They claimed to be merely a platform that is not responsible for what people do on their page.

They cooperated with law enforcement on many occasions to take down ads for sexually exploited children. But it became clear to Krell that they were doing the bare minimum to appease law enforcement so they wouldn’t get shutdown.

Krell had the legal burden to show that the owners of Backpage knowingly accepted money for these crimes and also created this content on their site.

She attempted to charge the owners with pimping but those charges didn’t stick. Ultimately the charges that enabled her to bring the case to trial was money laundering and conspiracy.

The amount of work it took her and her team and the teams she collaborated with to accumulate enough of the right kind of evidence and obtain it legally took years.

Her ambition is incredible! Most people would have given up but her passion drove her to do what it took to accomplish her goals.

The book details all of the legal hoops she jumped through and her evidence gathering missions, but in short [SPOILER ALERT]:

The primary owner of Backpage cooperated with law enforcement to shorten his sentence and provided more evidence and information against his colleagues. Krell got convictions for all three primary financial beneficiaries.

The website is shutdown.

During his presidency, Trump signed a bill that changed the CDA to prevent it from being used as a shield from criminal enforcement, specifically of the crime of human trafficking. It also allowed “victims to privately sue an internet service provider that aided in their victimization.”

“National research study showed that following the shutdown of Backpage, sex trafficking declined by more than 25%. The study found, based on analytical data, that demand had also been reduced.”

I’m not sure how they obtained this information and whether it was global or just national, but regardless, this case made a significant impact against the sex trafficking industry.

Krell also made significant changes in the way law enforcement handles these cases by emphasizing that the women and children involved should not be prosecuted as criminals— they are rape victims and victims of trauma.

“I had no interest in prosecuting the women themselves or arresting them to coerce cooperation, even though that was what other departments were doing. These women were victims. But they would never say so. And definitely not in court. Traumatized, ashamed, terrified of their pimps and traffickers, they were rightly fearful that talking to law enforcement could cause harm to a relative back home or their own injury or death.”

Instead of going after prostitutes, going after the big players like Backpage is how we will see a decline of this horrific practice.

Decriminalizing Sex Work?

I’m not sure how anyone who reads this book would come away thinking- “Yes, we definitely need to decriminalize sex work. It’s a harmless industry full of consensual acts where people are just trying to make a living.”

It’s clear that human trafficking is a problem. Child sex trafficking is rampant. And what’s sad is that we can’t even get a clear picture of it because of under-reporting and that:

“Victims do not always self-identify as victims because of the way they have been manipulated and because they have internalized so much trauma.”

“Statistically, the path to sex work often includes being raped or molested at a young age, being sexually exploited by a trafficker as a teenager, lacking a stable family environment, running away from an abusive home or group home, growing up in the system, and never experiencing consistent, unconditional love.”

Seeing how this industry is so corrupt already, I fail to see how decriminalizing prostitution and sex work will make this environment better. It could only get worse.

If it is no longer a crime, how could law enforcement ever make headway on determining when people are being trafficked and when transactions are consensual? How could they ever get into the places to the people who need them if they need probable cause and the act is no longer criminal?

“While a commercial sex transaction may seem consensual on the surface, the lopsided power dynamic, the history of trauma and abuse, and the lack of options often make the consent illusory.”

Decriminalizing it will increase the demand substantially because people won’t have to risk being charged with a crime.

Increased demand will be filled one way or another. And we already see how that is accomplished.

It is absurd, not to mention extremely insulting to survivors of human trafficking, to think decriminalizing prostitution and sex work would be a positive for our society and our communities in any way.

“There need to be fewer on-ramps and more off-ramps when it comes to the commercial sex trade.”

Planned Parenthood

Let’s circle back to my comment that Krell has ‘mostly’ made our communities safer.

She did phenomenal work in bringing down Backpage and her sensitivity to the victims and advocating for them and helping them get the help they need mentally, physically, and to get a fresh start moving forward is amazing!

So imagine my confusion when I find out that she got a new job as the Chief Legal Counsel at Planned Parenthood.

Her idea of ‘victim’ is narrow because apparently she does not view the voiceless lives in the womb as needing advocates or worthy of life and protection.

She explains her career change:

“I really felt a calling toward Planned Parenthood. I read a study showing that 80 percent of trafficking victims seek medical care at some point while they are being trafficked— and not just through the emergency room: 70 percent visit a community clinic like Planned Parenthood…

…Traffickers often withheld condoms and birth control pills to control and manipulate their victims. Planned Parenthood was a safe space where women could confidentially access reproductive health care, as well as emotional support… and yet, under President Trump, Planned Parenthood and its patients were under attack.”

On the surface, this seems noble. However, there are numerous ways to support these survivors and help them than to offer abortions.

Of course becoming pregnant from such a terrible thing is traumatic, there is no doubt of that. But we don’t heal the pain and the injustice by taking the life of another, no matter the circumstances of the conception or how unwanted the baby is.

We offer support in all the other ways. And Planned Parenthood is not the only place doing this. Our local community has a place called Agape Pregnancy Center that does all the things Krell desires for survivors— except abortion. I’m sure there are many other organizations doing the same.

The ‘attacks’ she claims Trump was making were about abortion. The government offered to continue funding Planned Parenthood if they stopped doing abortions. They refused. Because pretty much all of their revenue is from abortions. Apparently they didn’t care enough about women’s health to get funding unless they were able to continue killing babies in the womb.

It is also confounding to me that as Chief Legal Counsel to Planned Parenthood, and being privy to the information that came out about the selling of body parts and the partial birth abortions and the other horrific practices done on a day-to-day basis at these centers, she would continue to defend Planned Parenthood and promote them. It seems so incongruent with her sense of justice and victimhood in the rest of this book.

She says,

“We need to continue fighting for a cultural shift to dismantle the stubborn legacy of misogyny and be a society that truly values women and girls.”

I’m not sure how I feel about her saying this.

First- I’m not sure the correct blame is placed on misogyny. The current case of Ghislaine Maxwell is proof that women traffick and abuse as well. I believe the blame is simply on sin and the increasing belief people have that they should be able to have whatever sexual freedoms they desire. And of course, people will meet about any demand if they see money in it. The claim of misogyny is too narrow and misses the larger and more important point.

Second- it’s hard to believe her stance on the 'valuing women and girls’ when I see the contradiction in her defending abortions.

She comments how young black girls are disproportionately affected by human-trafficking in greater numbers.

Yet she fails to see that the abortion industry is the same. More African-American babies are aborted than any other in the US.

She wants to value women and girls yet abortions are done on vastly more girl babies than boy babies. This also in turn creates a ‘shortage’ of women in countries like China and India which creates a market for human trafficking for men to have wives.

If she truly wants to create a world that values women and girls, she must rethink the moral dissonance she lives.

A Couple Critiques

My review for this book is largely on content, but there is one remark to writing style to address that I’m gonna slide in here quick.

The writing is not anecdotal and is heavy on legal proceedings. There is some dullness in this way. Yet Krell is a prosecutor telling it from her perspective as a prosecutor, and so these writing choices make sense.

As another reviewer put it, to provide a more ‘human’ connection some reviewers had hoped for would be to exploit these survivors again. It’s their stories to tell and Krell was sensitive to not provide more information on their lives than was necessary to explain the case.

Also, I wish she would have addressed more of the pornography side of this industry. Porn is largely accepted in culture today as if it is a harmless thing but it is intimately connected to sex-trafficking and we are naive to think we could ever separate them.

Conclusion

Maggy Krell has made a major accomplishment as described in this book, but I can’t ignore the double-standard she lives now as Chief Legal Counsel of Planned Parenthood.

My prayer is that she would recognize the victims killed at the hands of Planned Parenthood and take down the culprits just as she did with Backpage. She is more than capable.

All that to say, this does not affect my high rating of the book. I still recommend this book be read!

We need to be made more aware of this criminal industry so we do not view sexual exploitation as normal or accepted.

**Received an ARC via NetGalley**

I highly recommend this book! Maggy Krell does a great job walking us through the process of taking down the largest internet sex trafficking website. This book was very informative without being too heavy on the legal jargon, it is very easy to read. I commend Maggy for her tenacity and patience and I am sure she is aware of the countless lives she has helped with her drive to protect the most vulnerable. This is such an important topic especially in the recent events of the Epstein case-No one is above the law regardless of money or power.

This is an incredible, fascinating, and dramatic primer on sex trafficking in America. I had heard about the impressive fight to take down Backpage, but knew nothing about the prosecutors who made it happen until I read this book.

Maggie Krell is a hero! Now, granted, this book could not have found a more ready and interested audience than me. I too am a former prosecutor, and I related so deeply to Krell’s stories about her early interest in helping victims of sex trafficking developing when she was forced to prosecute low-level prostitution cases, and realized that the prostitutes were not the ones we should be punishing. I really loved the tone and fervor of this book. Sometimes books like this about tough topics can be dry or depressing, but Krell infuses every page with her passion and desire to help women held by sex traffickers. This book was fascinating, informative and important from beginning to end. I wish everyone in America could read this book — especially the people (primarily men) who consume these services without knowing the pain and terror being caused to so many women in the name of pleasure.

A really thoughtful and important book, always compelling, that I am so happy I read. Bravo to attorney Maggie Krell and her team, both for the important work and for this book raising awareness. This book should be read by every American. I really look forward to learning more about what Maggy Krell does next, because it’s clear from this book that she won’t be stopping her good work anytime soon.

Thanks to NYU Press for the advance copy of this great book.

This is not the kind of book I normally read (non-fiction), but in an effort to broaden my reading horizons, I thought I would give myself something completely different to put on my TBR pile. I actually put off reading it for a while because it's quite a heavy topic, but I ultimately dove in and finished it off reasonably quickly.

I wasn't sure what to expect, particularly as I had never heard of Backpage before this, but it was less intense than I anticipated. It read like a novel, easy to follow (but with a lot of legalese) and broad strokes of information about sex trafficking, how the system works, or doesn't in this case, and how Ms Krell got involved in the process of tackling Backpage. It's a horrific place, this Dark Web, and how people remain focused on bringing this kind of stuff into the light is both gratifying and beyond my comprehension. I am very glad they do, however, although it can't be easy and has to fundamentally and irreparably change you at some emotional level. Perhaps it's better that so many of us are blissfully unaware of the actual depths some people plumb with zero conscience or care of those they're abusing.

Despite that, it felt a bit simply done, more 'facts and figures' than getting fully immersed in the information with the detail that usually rounds out a novel (characters, who they are, how they're connected, place, time, etc.) It felt a bit short, maybe? Like it would present better as a personal essay or an article rather than a full book. I'm not quite sure. But that's not to say it wasn't well done or that I didn't like reading it and learning something about a world I had no knowledge of.

First and foremost, a large thank you to NetGalley, Maggy Krell, and NYU Press for providing me with a copy of this publication, which allows me to provide you with an unbiased review.

While there are many deplorable criminal acts that take place on a daily basis, few are surely as horrid as sex trafficking. It would seem to be something that could be easily caught by the authorities, but those behind it are not only sly, but also know how to hide things in plain sight. With the emergence of the World Wide Web, people have turned to websites to move and sell people for their own profit, one of which was backpage.com After learning about this and doing her best to comprehend what was taking place, Maggy Krell went on a mission to close down the site and have those who run it brought to justice. This is her story and some of the battles she faced along the way.

Maggy Krell was a young lawyer who sought to make a difference in her own way. She saw some of the horrible crimes of child exploitation and sexual abuse crossing her desk and wanted to make a difference. She came upon Backpage.com, a website with a variety of things for sale, but also large ‘escort’ and ‘adult services’ pages, one that was rumoured to be a front for sexual slavery, where people could post and sell young women for a price and the authorities would be none the wiser. Working in California to get the ball rolling, Krell started her hunt to ensure that those at the top knew exactly what was going on.

As she worked more, it became apparent that the site was used almost entirely to sell young women into sexual slavery, with the other parts of the site there as a shell or front. Krell began pushing for more and seeking evidence that she could use to show that those who ran the site were knowingly participating in human trafficking and profiting off of it. It was slow, tedious, and sometimes horribly graphic work, but Krell stuck to her guns and made things stick.

The latter portion of the book explores bringing those in positions of real power to justice and having the courts decide their fates. While defence attorneys sought to put an arm’s length distance from the events or First Amendment defences forward, Krell and her team did all that they could to ensure the dots connected. This would be a major coup if the judge could see the clear-cut argument and rule in their favour. But, those running Backpage would not go down without a fight.

While Maggy Krell was successful in her endeavour, this is only the beginning. Just because a platform for illegal activity is closed down does not mean things stop. Women, men, children, and many others are being exploited on a daily basis and there is little that can be done, provided it is all committed on the sly. Exploitation and human sex trafficking (in fact, trafficking of any kind) is horrible and leads to many victims. It is the dedication of Maggy Krell and many like her that promise to do their best to remove key bricks in the wall, in hopes that each loosened brick will mean the wall will one day come crashing down.

While I do not read books of this nature with any regularity, I do find myself drawn to learning things about which I know little. Disturbing though it may be, I come away with a major sense of education and preparedness when I scan the news headlines on a regular basis. Krell writes in such a way that I can take things away from the narrative without feeling as though it is all above my head. She educates throughout, providing details and explanations to make sure things are well understood and their impact is not lost. I needed a book like this to open my eyes to the truths that occur around me. Well-documented chapters provide the reader with a pathway of understanding, as well as some photos to personalize the experience. As I mentioned before, this is a horrible topic, but I feel better knowing a little more about it and how it fits into the larger picture of criminal activity.

Kudos, Madam Krell, for your hard work and dedication to ensuring the reader understands what’s going on behind the scenes.

I was really interested in the subject of this book as I remember when Backpage was very popular and when it got shut down. I skimmed through a lot of the book because most of this focused on the laws that the co-founders broke and why they couldn't prosecute them on prostitution charges.

I would have liked to see more from the defendants like clips from police interviews or court transcripts. The book kind of ends abruptly with the author moving on to Planned Parenthood and hasn't mentioned that the co-founders ended up being acquitted through a mistrial so justice still hasn't been served for all the victims.