Billionaire Robert Kraft’s prostitution case defense hopes to benefit from a key court ruling Wednesday that prevents prosecutors from using law enforcement videos of sex acts inside massage parlors.
Kraft’s legal team alerted the Palm Beach County judge in his case about a Martin County judge’s finding: Investigators violated the rules for a sneak-and-peek warrant allowing secret cameras to record illegal activity.
Lawyers for the 77-year-old owner of the New England Patriots — charged with two misdemeanor counts of soliciting prostitution — have made identical arguments that the warrant was unlawful. He was videotaped paying for sex at the Orchids of Asia Day Spa, Jupiter police said.
A hearing on whether the videos can be used against Kraft continued Wednesday before Judge Leonard Hanser. He will rule at a later date.
Martin County Judge Kathleen H. Roberts’ ruling was in the cases of several men charged with soliciting prostitution. She decided that law enforcement violated federal law by continuing to record people getting lawful massages.
“There was no effort made to avoid capturing innocent activity behind the closed door of a massage room,” Roberts wrote. “Any evidence gathered as a result of the [warrant] … is prohibited from use in the prosecution.”
Defense attorney Richard Kibbey, who represents a dozen men charged in the Martin County investigation, cheered the order as a “great day for the rule of law.”
Prosecutors “may appeal as a way to ‘save face’ but this order is bulletproof,” Kibbey said.
Prosecutors undoubtedly have a much weaker case without the videos showing the sex acts. They also have cooperation from the massage parlor workers.