New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft scored a knockout victory Wednesday when a Florida appeals court ruled prosecutors can’t use sex videos secretly recorded by police during a massage parlor prostitution sting last year, reports the South Florida Sun Sentinel. While the closely-watched case against Kraft is effectively over, he’s still fighting to make sure those embarrassing videos never get leaked to the internet. Kraft’s lawyers filed a new request in Palm Beach County Court calling for the tapes to remain sealed until ultimately destroyed. “Given the clear and uniform terms of the judicial decisions to date, any unsealing, dissemination, release, or leak of the Videos would, under any circumstance, perpetrate flagrant, gratuitous violations of Defendant’s constitutional rights,” wrote the lawyers said.
Media outlets have sought to obtain the videos through public records requests, arguing the public had a right to see evidence in a pending criminal case. Wednesday’s ruling by the Fourth District Court of Appeal does not address what should happen to the videos. The opinion agreed with Kraft’s claim that Jupiter, Fl., police unlawfully recorded him wth his clothes off at Orchids of Asia Day Spa on two days last year. Prosecutors have described how Kraft paid cash and took off his clothes for sex acts. The videotaping llasted for five days, leading to solicitation of prostitution charges against Kraft, 79, and 24 other men. The appeals court upheld lower-court rulings that police improperly used so-called “sneak-and-peek” warrants to ensnare Kraft and the others. Prosecutors challenged those rulings, which found that the warrants violated a federal law that requires police to minimize the intrusion of the cameras and focus only on crimes.. At two spas, police recorded women receiving lawful massages, even though the focus was supposed to be limited to men paying for sexual services.