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On Wednesday, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft got a major win. This victory didn’t come on the football field with his team, even though Bill Belichick and company hit the third day of padded practices on Wednesday. This win came in the form of an appeal of the powerful owner’s Florida prostitution case.
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Robert Kraft Wins Appeal; Court Says Video Evidence Is Inadmissible
A Florida appeals court agreed with a lower court’s decision to throw out some video evidence that was being used to prosecute the 78-year-old in the massage-parlor prostitution case stemming from a January 2019 investigation at the Orchids of Asia Day Spa in Jupiter, Florida, according to The Boston Globe. Kraft was charged in February 2019 with two counts of misdemeanor solicitation, but the video that was viewed as a key piece of the prosecution’s case couldn’t be used because it violated the privacy of dozens of other spa visitors who weren’t involved in the alleged incident, The Boston Globe reported.
A three-judge panel decided to uphold the decision from the trial court because the video was obtained using secret cameras.
Prosecutors had called for the appeal in hopes of re-opening the case against Kraft. However, according to the appellate court ruling, “the type of law enforcement surveillance utilized in these cases is extreme. While there will be situations that may warrant the use of the techniques at issue, the strict Fourth Amendment safeguards developed over the past few decades must be observed. … To permit otherwise would yield unbridled discretion to agents of law enforcement and the government, the antithesis of the constitutional liberty of people to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures,” The Associated Press reported.
What Happens Next?
Prosecutors of the case must determine whether they think they can make a strong case against Kraft without the video evidence. This is probably the best-case scenario for Kraft, as the video would have likely made a major impression on a jury deciding on if Kraft was guilty of the charges.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges when they were levied against him, and ultimately his attorneys questioned the validity of the search warrant used in the investigation as well.
