Sex trafficking trial delayed

SANDPOINT - A Priest Lake man's jury trial on sex trafficking charges in North Dakota is being postponed again.

Michael Thomas Sackett's trial was set for Feb. 18 in Bismarck, N.D., but is being pushed back again, this time due to "family/personal difficulties" involving his defense counsel, Jim Siebe.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Delorme stipulated for the continuance, according to U.S. District Court records. Sackett's three-day jury trial has been reset for April 21. It's the third continuance in the case.

Sackett, 47, is free on a conditional pretrial release and has already waived his right to a speedy trial. Sackett was to stand trial last fall, but the proceeding was pushed to February because Siebe fell ill, according to court records.

A federal grand jury indicted Sackett and two other men on charges of attempted sex trafficking of a child in 2013. They were accused of attempting to recruit a 12-year-old into committing a commercial sex act.

Sackett pleaded not guilty to the offense. Siebe has declined to comment on Sackett's case.

The arrests were made in conjunction with Operation Safe Bakken, a federal effort to curb crime in North Dakota's oil patch country.

Sackett made national headlines in a suit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2008 over a disputed wetland. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Sackett had a right to challenge an EPA compliance order and the case is pending in Idaho's federal court.