Florida Prosecutors Drop Solicitation Case Against Kraft

(Bloomberg) -- Florida prosecutors are dropping prostitution solicitation charges against New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, according to Palm Beach State Attorney Dave Aronberg, who said his hands were tied after key video evidence was ruled inadmissible.

“Without these videos, we cannot move forward with our prosecutions, and thus we are ethically compelled to drop the cases against all the defendants,” Aronberg said Thursday in a virtual press conference. Along with Kraft, some two dozen other men allegedly captured on video in sex acts at the same Palm Beach County spa will have their cases dropped.

Last month, a state appeals court ruled that secret police video surveillance of Kraft and the others was an “extreme” act that violated their constitutional right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody’s office decided not to appeal that decision further.

Aronberg, whose office began the prosecution, said Thursday an appeal to the state Supreme Court could have backfired, resulting in stricter limits on or even a ban on hidden-camera surveillance evidence in prostitution cases and other prosecutions.

But Aronberg also defended the decision to bring charges in the first place. He called the Orchids of Asia spa, where Kraft and the others were filmed, a “notorious brothel in a family shopping center” where “rich guys from a local country club lined up to receive sex acts throughout the day and until the place closed around midnight.”

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.