Updated: 12:25 PM ET, Wed April 3, 2019
Robert Kraft’s attorneys are now accusing police of carrying out an invasive “NSA-style surveillance campaign” in their actions to suppress a video that shows Kraft allegedly soliciting sex acts with employees at a spa located in Jupiter Florida.
“The (Jupiter Police Department) resorted to the most drastic, invasive, indiscriminate spying conceivable by law enforcement, taking continuous video recordings of private massages in which customers would be stripping naked as a matter of course in order to prosecute what are at most misdemeanor offenses,” the attorneys write.
Kraft, who is also the owner of the NFL’s New England Patriots team, has pleaded not guilty to two misdemeanor counts of soliciting prostitution. His lawyers have stated that the 77-year-old first-time offender will unlikely receive time in prison for the charges if he were to be found guilty. However, the video evidence that was filmed inside the day spa would be damaging to Kraft’s reputation, experts mention.
Kraft has since waived his arraignment and has also requested a jury trial in the case. His attorneys have asked that the video of Kraft performing sexual acts be suppressed. An insider source that is familiar with the case stated that Kraft would not be accepting a plea deal offered by Florida prosecutors.
The recent filing particularly disapproves the use of what’s known as a “sneak and peek” warrant, in which will allow law enforcement to investigate private premises without notifying the subject of the permit until after. The provision has been one of the most controversial aspects of the Patriot Act. The law was passed after the attacks of 9/11 which lead to the expansion of federal government surveillance powers.
Kraft’s attorneys mention that they cannot find any instance of a statute or legal decision in Florida law which would authorize or allow law enforcement to get a “sneak and peek” warrant, stating that it is “virtually unheard of in Florida.”
By using that warrant, which was also approved by a judge, police secretly installed hidden video cameras inside the Orchids of Asia Day Spa on January 17. The affidavit states that they used a “tactical ruse” at the business to remove the occupants inside and secretly install the hidden cameras.
Kraft’s attorneys say that the ruse was a phony “suspicious package” warning that forced an unnecessary evacuation at the day spa. Kraft’s attorneys continued by saying the “fruits of an unlawful sneak and peek warrant.”
