A judge has granted New England Patriot’s owner Robert Kraft’s motion to suppress surveillance video recorded in the charges of alleged prostitution against him, dealing a major blow to prosecutors in the case.
Kraft faces two counts of soliciting prostitution after allegedly visiting the Orchids of Asia Day Spa in Jupiter in January.
In the order issued Monday, a judge wrote that Kraft had a “reasonable, subjective expectation of privacy, as would anyone seeking a private massage in a commercial or professional setting” in support of suppressing the video.
The judge also suppressed all information obtained from the traffic stop involving Kraft in January.
The State Attorney’s Office can appeal this order.
In addition, the Jupiter Police Department released hundreds of pages of evidence Monday into the investigation of alleged prostitution at the Orchids of Asia Day Spa.
Records released show that as a result of the investigation, law enforcement seized and deposited more than a half-million dollars into a Wells Fargo bank account. Officials seized all of those funds after executing search warrants in Jupiter as well as Martin County and Orange County.
The filings show that “covert surveillance video” and “body worn camera” videos are the main pieces of evidence gathered against the alleged “johns” in the case, including Kraft.
Law enforcement collected an array of evidence against Hua Zhang and Lei Wang, two of the alleged “madams” in the case. The list of evidence spans several pages for both, and includes “$140,000 in US currency,” “documents obtained from trash pull,” “paper napkins with seminal fluid” and receipts to the business.