SPOTLIGHT ON MR. KRAFT
NFL could take action over Florida spa arrest
GETTING off centre stage appears to be an impossibility for the New England Patriots. The team that secured their sixth Super Bowl in 18 years earlier this month have endured their share of scandals.
In 2007, the Patriots got in trouble for filming other teams’ signals. The NFL fined the team $250,000 and coach Bill Belichick $500,000.
In 2014, Tom Brady was accused of deflating game footballs to gain a better grip. He served a fourgame suspension, and the Patriots were fined $1 million.
In 2017, the team’s star tight end Aaron Hernandez committed suicide while in prison for murder.
Now, it is team owner Robert Kraft’s turn to try and remove himself from a national spotlight. Kraft faces charges of soliciting a prostitute after he was twice videotaped at a shopping-center massage parlor in Florida, police announced on Friday.
The 77-year-old Kraft denied any wrongdoing. The case comes amid a crackdown on sex trafficking from Palm Beach to Orlando in which police planted cameras in massage parlors.
Kraft was not immediately arrested. Jupiter police said a warrant will be issued and his attorneys will be notified. They said details about the misdemeanor charges against the owner of the Super Bowl champion team will not be released until next week.
Hundreds of arrest warrants have been issued in recent days as a result of the six-month investigation, and more are expected. Ten spas have been closed, and several people have been taken into custody on sex trafficking charges. Jupiter Police Chief Daniel Kerr said he was shocked to learn that Kraft, who is worth $6 billion, was a visitor to the shopping-center massage parlor, the Orchids of Asia Day Spa. ‘We are as equally stunned as everyone else,’ Kerr said. Most people charged for the first time with soliciting a prostitute in Florida are allowed to enter a diversion program, said attorney David Weinstein, a former prosecutor. Kraft would likely have to perform 100 hours of community service and attend a course on the harmful effects of prostitution and sex trafficking, he said.
The arrest could also get Kraft in trouble with the NFL, which in a statement said only that it is ‘aware of the ongoing law enforcement matter and will continue to monitor developments’.
Under league policy, players, owners, coaches and other employees can be punished for ‘conduct detrimental to the integrity of and public confidence in’ the NFL.
‘Ownership and club or league management have traditionally been held to a higher standard and will be subject to more significant discipline,’ the policy says.
The Patriots won the Super Bowl over the Los Angeles Rams for their sixth NFL championship, making them the most successful team in pro sports during that span. Before the Super Bowl, several retired NFL players appeared in a public service announcement decrying sexual exploitation and human trafficking in Atlanta, the host city.
Kraft lives in Massachusetts and has a home in the Palm Beach area. Though he is a Democrat, he is friendly with President Donald Trump. Kraft’s wife, Myra Hiatt Kraft, died in 2011. He has been dating 39-year-old actress Ricki Noel Lander since 2012.
‘Well it’s very sad. I was very surprised to see it. He’s proclaimed his innocence,’ Trump said on Friday.
In a statement, Kraft’s representatives said they ‘categorically deny that Mr Kraft engaged in any illegal activity’.
After hearing about the arrest, Brian Rubino, a Patriot fan who lives nearby, went by the spa wearing a team jersey. He said Kraft made a mistake, but he could see how it might happen.
‘A 77-year-old man, lost his wife. I see how you can end up in a place like this,’ Rubino said.
Kraft, who made his fortune through a packaging company, bought the Patriots in 1994 for $172 million. He hired Bill Belichick as coach in 2000, and the team later drafted quarterback Tom Brady, launching its nearly two decades of success.