Police violated New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft’s rights when they surreptitiously videotaped him paying for sex acts at a Florida massage parlor, a court ruled Wednesday, dealing a blow to prosecutors’ case against him.
The 4th District Court of Appeals said Wednesday that the secretly recorded videos violated the 79-year-old NFL owner’s right to privacy and are out of bounds for Kraft’s upcoming solicitation trial — potentially killing prosecutors’ case.
“We find the trial courts properly concluded that the criminal defendants had standing to challenge the video surveillance and that total suppression of the video recordings was constitutionally warranted,” the four-judge panel wrote, according to UPI.
The court ruled that the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable search and seizure applied to the recordings.
Florida state prosecutors said they’re weighing their next move.
“We are in the process of reviewing the opinion and will comment publicly at the appropriate time,” the state Attorney’s Office said in a statement, according to WPTV-TV.
Kraft’s lawyers, meanwhile, said the recordings should never have been taken in the first place.
“This ruling protects the constitutional rights and civil liberties of all the men and women who were illegally spied on in this case,” the defense team said in a statement to the New York Times. “More broadly, this ruling will further protect the civil liberties of all Americans by helping prevent future Fourth Amendment violations like those that occurred in this case.”
Kraft was among those charged in February 2019 in a Florida investigation into prostitution in Sunshine State massage parlors.
Florida State Attorney Dave Aronberg said the billionaire team owner was one of 25 men accused of paying for sex acts at the Orchids of Asia Day Spa in Jupiter. Several spa owners and employees were also charged.
Kraft, who owns a home in Palm Beach, pleaded not guilty but issued a public apology after the arrest.