KRAFT'S NOT FINISHED YET
‘No way’ NFL owner takes quick deal
Normally, he’s not one to leave a happy ending on the table . . .
But sources tell us there’s “absolutely no way” Patriots owner and accused rub-and-tug recipient Robert Kraft will take the no-plea deal that Florida prosecutors are offering in his prostitution-solicitation case.
Kraft was charged with two misdemeanors after he was caught on camera allegedly trading cash for sexual favors at the Orchids of Asia Day Spa in Jupiter, Fla., on Jan. 18 and Jan. 22 — shortly before his team won its sixth Super Bowl. He has pleaded not guilty. But now the state attorney’s office says it will drop the charges if he admits he would have been found guilty at trial of soliciting a prostitute.
“This is a standard first-time offender plea offer,” said Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office spokesman Mike Edmondson.
The office extended the offer to 24 other men arrested in the case, but no one has accepted it so far, Edmondson said.
Kraft and the other accused johns would also have to submit to an STD test, take a class on the dangers of prostitution, complete 100 hours of community service and pay $10,000 in court fees.
“One-hundred percent no way he’s taking the deal,” a source told us of Kraft.
“Kraft strongly insists he didn’t do anything wrong, and he isn’t going to take a deal that indicates he did.”
Prosecutors painted Kraft and the other customers as enablers of human trafficking — but investi- gators have struggled to show the operation at Orchids of Asia relied on trafficking.
No one has been charged with human trafficking, and both women with whom Kraft allegedly engaged — 45-year-old spa manager Lei Wang and 58-yearold spa employee Shen Mingbi — are licensed masseuses and Florida residents.
Kraft is one of roughly 300 men charged in a massive massageparlor crackdown that has also shuttered 10 seedy spas between Palm Beach and Orlando. Authorities observed the houses of ill repute for 10 months and gathered intel by grilling patrons at traffic stops once they left the spas — then obtained warrants to install cameras in rubdown rooms.
But legal observers have raised myriad questions about the investigation.
Sources close to the investigation say Jupiter police incorrectly obtained the spy-cam warrant and should not have had the legal authority to install them.
Plus, the cameras did not capture any audio, so there is no proof Kraft and the alleged prostitutes agreed to trade sex for cash.
“It is possible that this could have been a legal and consensual act between adults, and there does not seem to be evidence to prove otherwise,” according to former federal prosecutor Eric Snyder, who is not involved in the case.
The traffic stops may also have been illegal, observers have noted.
While the deal would let Kraft dodge jail time, it could make his life tougher with the NFL.
“A guilty plea from Kraft would certainly mean he’d also face some kind of discipline from the NFL,” a league source said.
Kraft’s lawyers did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday.