Big win for Robert Kraft as judge tosses massage parlor video - Boston Herald

[massage]

A Florida judge has thrown out massage parlor video allegedly showing Patriots owner Robert Kraft engaging in a sex act because of a “serious flaw” in how the salacious footage was obtained.

The blockbuster ruling Monday bans a key prosecution exhibit because the video, West Palm Beach Judge Leonard Hanser wrote, also secretly recorded men and women coming into the spa for legitimate massages.

The ruling gives the 77-year-old billionaire a major win in his Orchids of Asia Day Spa case.

“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,” Hanser wrote in his 10-page ruling.

The judge said Jupiter police and the judge who OK’d the five-day surveillance at the spa did not use “minimization techniques” to protect other patrons.

“In fact, more than one woman had a significant portion of her Spa time viewed by a detective-monitor and the entirety of her spa time recorded and placed in Jupiter Police Department records,” Hanser wrote, adding it was “a serious flaw in the search warrant” — especially since “the search warrant did not allege women were seeking illegal contact.”

The judge added the detectives also had “no written guidelines” and should have “minimized” exposure to patrons when they realized no illegal activity was “likely to occur,” because the customers “left on their underwear” and the “lights were not dimmed” in the massage rooms.

The judge also tossed all evidence relating to Kraft being identified after he left the spa on Jan. 19, because police used the video to instruct Jupiter police officers to follow and stop Kraft’s chauffeur-driven Bentley. “All evidence obtained against (Kraft) through and in connection with the search warrant is suppressed,” the judge wrote.

Kraft has pleaded not guilty to a second-degree misdemeanor charge of paying for sex at the spa. He later issued an apology without specifying what he was apologizing for.

If the judge’s ruling is not overturned on appeal, the entire case could be dropped. About 300 men at 10 spas from Palm Beach to Orlando were named in the sex-for-fee case.

NFL officials have said they are monitoring the case. The NFL has taken no action against Kraft, so far.

Kraft is still scheduled to appear in court for a May 21 pretrial hearing.

Let's block ads! (Why?)