Judge: Sex videos won’t be used in Kraft’s case
Ruling a win for New England Patriots owner
PALM BEACH COUNTY – Billionaire Robert Kraft got a major court victory Monday when a judge ordered prosecutors are forbidden from using sex videos secretly recorded by police during a massage parlor prostitution sting.
The ruling by Palm Beach County Judge Leonard Hanser either severely weakens or ends the prosecution of two misdemeanor counts pending since late February, unless prosecutors appeal and are successful.
Kraft — the 77-year-old owner of the New England Patriots professional football team — prevailed in his battle against the evidence collected by Jupiter police for a few key reasons, Hanser wrote in a 12-page order.
The recordings from Orchids of Asia Day Spa resulted in charges against Kraft and 24 other male customers, along with the owner, manager and two other women who worked there. Kraft was caught on camera paying for and receiving sex acts during visits on Jan. 19 and Jan. 20, authorities say.
Hanser ruled that Jupiter police violated Kraft’s Constitutional right to privacy — even if he had been engaged in criminal activity. This meant Kraft could challenge
a sneak-and-peek search warrant that allowed police to plant the covert cameras.
“The Court finds it clear that he had a reasonable, subjective expectation of privacy, as would anyone seeking a private massage in a commercial or professional setting, and that the activity in that room would remain private,” the judge said.
Moreover, the warrant itself violated a federal law that requires police to minimize the intrusion of the secret cameras and focus only on crimes, Hanser found. At Orchids, police wound up recording women receiving lawful services, even though the focus was supposed to be only on men paying for sex acts.
“Failing to consider and include instructions on minimizing the impact on women, through a highly intrusive law enforcement technique in a setting with a high legitimate expectation of privacy, is a serious flaw in the search warrant, especially considering that the search warrant did not allege women were seeking illegal contact,” the judge wrote.
Similarly, there was nothing specified in the warrant to prevent the videotaping of men who got lawful massages.
“The fact that some totally innocent women and men had their entire lawful time spent in a massage room fully recorded and viewed intermittently by a detective-monitor is unacceptable and results from the lack of sufficient premonitoring written guidelines,” Hanser wrote.
Kraft had been scheduled to appear in court for the first time on May 21 for the scheduling of his trial. Prosecutors did not immediately respond to a request for comment on their next move.
Despite issuing a public apology, Kraft hired an aggressive legal team to challenge both the legality of the police investigation and the videos from ever being released. The South Florida Sun Sentinel and other media outlets have attempted to obtain the videos through public records requests, arguing the public has a right to see evidence in a pending criminal case.
In previous rulings, Judge Hanser and Circuit Judge Joseph Marx have ordered that all videos from Orchids of Asia concerning alleged crimes must be sealed temporarily to ensure that Kraft receives a fair trial.
But after Monday’s ruling, Kraft’s legal team of Alex Spiro, William Burck and Jack Goldberger asked Hanser to go further by sealing the videos forever.
They wrote that the court should “ensure that the same Videos the Court has ruled were illegally obtained (and thus never should have been created) are not nonetheless disseminated to the public.”
The defense asked the judge to step in and block prosecutors from releasing the videos, in the event they drop the charges and the trial is canceled.
“Specifically, the Court should make it abundantly clear that the State cannot make an end run around the Court’s orders by simply dismissing its charges against Mr. Kraft and then releasing the Videos with impunity,” the attorneys wrote, requesting a hearing as soon as possible.
Kraft’s defense and prosecutors have been sniping at each other for more than a month. A week ago, prosecutors asked for Spiro and Burck to be held in contempt of court.
Prosecutors Judith Arco, Greg Kridos and Craig Williams argued that the defense attorneys made a false accusation against a Jupiter police officer during a recent hearing about the warrant.
They said the officer was unfairly accused of telling other cops he would lie to justify a traffic stop of one of the massage parlor customers.
During the investigation, officers pulled over Kraft and customers to find out their names for the purpose of filing charges later. Prosecutors say they had proof the officer never made such a remark.
But as it turns out, Judge Hanser on Monday also ruled that the traffic stop of Kraft’s Bentley after he left the spa on Jan. 19 was illegal. This means that police would be unable to testify at Kraft’s trial — if he had one — that they had looked at Kraft’s Massachusetts driver’s license.
In court records, prosecutors said Kraft, a passenger in the chauffeur-driven car, said he owns the Patriots and asked the cop if he was a Miami Dolphins fan.
“Robert Kraft was very polite and respectful during the whole process,” the prosecutors wrote, adding that he also flashed a Super Bowl ring.