WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (WHDH) — An appeal was filed by Florida prosecutors just hours before the midnight deadline to challenge a judge’s decision to block secretly recorded video in connection to New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft’s alleged solicitation of prostitutes at a massage parlor in Florida.
Kraft is facing two misdemeanor charges for allegedly paying for sex acts on two separate occasions at the Orchids of Asia Day Spa in January that were reportedly caught on cameras hidden in the ceiling. Tuesday night, prosecutors reaffirmed their position that those tapes, which were previously deemed inadmissible, should have their day in court.
“Based on video captured by surveillance cameras police installed in the Spa pursuant to the warrant, Mr. Kraft’s guilt is a virtual certainty,” prosecutors said.
Judge Leonard Hanser ruled in May that prosecutors could not use the video because Jupiter police did not take enough precautions to avoid invading the privacy of spa customers who only received legitimate massages.
“It is of course preferable that no customer be recorded receiving a lawful massage, the recorded acts proved to be overwhelmingly criminal in nature,” prosecutors continued, adding, “In no event would Mr. Kraft be entitled to total suppression of all video in the case; rather, he would be entitled to suppress only the unlawfully seized videos, a class which would not include the video evidence of his own prostitution offenses.”
Prosecutors claimed that out of the 39 massages recorded, only four failed to capture criminal conduct.
Kraft has pleaded not guilty but issued a public apology.
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