Florida prosecutors on Friday appealed a choose’s ruling to bar the use as proof films allegedly showing New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft receiving sexual services for cash at a massage parlor in January.
The decide’s ruling earlier this week has crippled the prosecutors’ case in opposition to Kraft, charged with counts of soliciting prostitution on the Orchids of Asia Day Spa in Jupiter, Florida. Kraft’s lawyer, William Burck, stated in a declaration that Palm Beach County State’s Attorney Dave “Aronberg is acknowledging he has no case without the unlawful video recordings that four Florida judges have now discovered to be unconstitutional.”
Florida prosecutors on Friday appealed a judge’s ruling barring them from using as proof films allegedly displaying New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft receiving sexual offerings for cash at a massage parlor in January.
Judge Leonard Hanser’s suppression of these videos on Monday has crippled the prosecutors’ case towards Kraft, charged with two counts of soliciting prostitution at the Orchids of Asia Day Spa in Jupiter, Florida.
The billionaire businessman Kraft, seventy-seven, is accused of having been sexually serviced for cash throughout visits to the spa on consecutive days, which had been captured by way of mystery surveillance cameras that police had placed there.
The 2nd of these visits came about hours earlier than he watched his Patriots defeat the Kansas City Chiefs within the AFC Championship.
He has pleaded not responsible in the case, which became filed weeks after the Patriots received their sixth Super Bowl name. Among the maximum distinguished of all NFL group proprietors, Kraft is considered one of the dozen men accused of having intercourse for money at the spa, all of whom have been charged on the premise of surveillance video.
Without video proof, prosecutors may also find it tough, if not impossible, to convict any of the men at trial.
Hanser, in his decision barring prosecutors from the use of the movies as evidence in Kraft’s case, said that the warrant that legal police to install the cameras in the spa, and the police officers themselves, did now not take steps to “decrease the recording of sports no longer associated with crimes under investigation” as required by law.
The warrant didn’t teach police on the way to reduce the effect of recording on girl customers of the spa, who were not suspected of seeking sex for pay, and also failed to tell them a way to limit the surveillance of male clients “receiving lawful offerings,” Hanser ruled.
Judges managing similar cases concerning several different rub-down parlors in Florida have barred prosecutors from using surveillance films from inside the spas.
Kraft’s attorney, William Burck, stated in an announcement that Palm Beach County State’s Attorney Dave “Aronberg is acknowledging he has no case without the illegal video recordings that 4 Florida judges have now observed to be unconstitutional.”
“No proof means no trial. So the State had the simplest options— drop the case or attraction. They selected to attraction, but we are assured the appellate courtroom will trust Judge Hanser and the alternative judges who threw out their illegally received proof,” Burck said. The prosecution’s appeal of Hanser’s ruling may be heard by the Circuit Court of the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit in Palm Beach County.
