Robert Kraft
Judge Blocks Spa Massage Video …
Tossed from Prostitution Case
5/13/2019 2:42 PM PDT
Breaking News
The Patriots win … again, and this time it’s their owner, Robert Kraft, who gets to spike the football — the judge says police video of him inside the Orchids of Asia spa can’t be used in the case.
According to docs, obtained by TMZ Sports, the judge had big problems with the search warrant that was issued, allowing police to plant cameras and secretly record Kraft and others inside the spa. The judge said police didn’t minimize their recordings — meaning they didn’t do enough to protect people who were inside the spa getting perfectly legal massages.
The judge also said the police didn’t do enough to minimize the impact of recording female customers inside the spa.
Detectives who testified in recent weeks said their only direction while monitoring the cameras was to “look for illegal activity.” The judge said that’s not nearly specific enough … they needed to have written guidelines as to when to turn the cameras on and off.
In his ruling, the judge said, “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.”
The bottom line for Kraft is … the video can’t be used as evidence in his prostitution case. Also, the traffic stop police made as Kraft left the spa has also been tossed from the case.
Aside from greatly reducing the chances Kraft can even be prosecuted … the judge’s suppression ruling also means there’s almost no way the spa video will ever see the light of day. If it’s not legally obtained evidence … there’s no justification for releasing it to the public.