Lawyer for billionaire New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft calls prostitution sting video ‘unlawful’
- Defence attorney Jack Goldberger tells judge in high-profile trial that the ‘whole warrant is unlawful’, a claim prosecutors strongly deny
New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft’s lawyers asked a Florida judge to toss out hidden-camera videos that prosecutors say show the 77-year-old billionaire receiving sexual favours for money inside a Florida massage parlour.
“We think the whole warrant is unlawful,” defence attorney Jack Goldberger told Judge Leonard Hanser in Palm Beach County court.
Prosecutors, however, said Kraft cannot challenge the video’s legality because he could not have had any expectation of privacy in the first place.
“An individual who is in a business establishment with no ties to that establishment, much less there to engage in a crime, has no expectation of privacy,” Assistant State’s Attorney Greg Kridos said.
The video could be key evidence against the owner of the reigning Super Bowl champions, who faces two misdemeanour counts of soliciting prostitution at the Orchids of Asia Spa in Jupiter, Florida, along with some two dozen other men.
His legal team is fresh off a win on Tuesday, when they successfully persuaded Hanser to temporarily block prosecutors from releasing the hidden-camera footage to media outlets, which had requested copies under the state’s robust open records law.
