New England Patriots Owner Robert Kraft Wants Massage Parlor Videos Destroyed
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft says he wants a judge to destroy the controversial spa recordings that landed him with prostitution charges.
Kraft's legal team called it an "illegal and unconstitutional sneak and peek warrant" by Jupiter police.
In February of 2019, authorities said Kraft faced two counts of soliciting and another to commit prostitution after secretly recorded video allegedly showed him at a Jupiter massage parlor paying for sex acts.
However, the recent court ruling barred the videos from being used at trial.
"The type of law enforcement surveillance utilized in these cases is extreme," said the 23-page ruling, written by Judge Cory Ciklin and joined by Judges Robert Gross and Melanie May. "While there will be situations which may warrant the use of the techniques at issue, the strict Fourth Amendment safeguards developed over the past few decades must be observed. If they are not, any evidence obtained could very well be declared inadmissible as a matter of constitutional law. 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."