FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. _ Call it another major court victory for New England Patriots football team owner Robert Kraft over prosecutors in his massage parlor prostitution case.
Florida's Fourth District Court of Appeal on Wednesday ruled in favor of Kraft, who claimed that police unlawfully recorded him on secret surveillance cameras.
"This ruling protects the constitutional rights and civil liberties of all the men and women who were illegally spied on in this case," Kraft's legal team said in a statement. "More broadly, this ruling will further protect the civil liberties of all Americans, by helping prevent future 4th Amendment violations like those that occurred in this case."
Unless Florida prosecutors seek another review or try their luck in a higher court, they are forbidden from using that key video evidence against the billionaire businessman, who is a part-time resident of Palm Beach.
Their case is effectively over if the latest ruling stands for Kraft, the manager and two employees of the massage parlor, and misdemeanor cases of about 90 men arrested in a Vero Beach sting.
"We are pleased that the Florida's Fourth District court of Appeal has ruled in our favor by affirming suppression of recordings that should never have been taken," Kraft's team said. "In doing so, the appellate panel unanimously agreed with every judge who has examined these issues and ruled that law enforcement acted unconstitutionally when conducting their investigation."
A panel of three appellate judges wrote that lower court judges had properly concluded that police used unlawful "sneak-and-peek" warrants to ensnare Kraft and the others.
"In the absence of any binding Florida law concerning silent video surveillance like that conducted in this case, the trial courts properly applied well-settled and persuasive federal law on the issue," Judge Cory J. Ciklin wrote.
