A Florida judge on Tuesday temporarily sealed videos allegedly showing
New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft receiving sexual services for pay at a massage parlor.
Judge Leonard Hanser of Palm Beach County court said in a ruling that Kraft’s “right to a fair trial” on charges of soliciting prostitution “requires the disputed videotape to be withheld” — for a limited period of time — from media organizations that have sought the videos’ release.
In his written order,
which came in response to a request by Kraft’s criminal defense team to keep the videos from the public, Hanser wrote, “A seventy-eight year old man walks into a day spa and, in addition to receiving conventional spa services, he allegedly engages in illegal sexual activity.”
“That seems like a rather tawdry but fairly unremarkable event,” Hanser wrote. “But if that man is the owner of the most successful franchise in, arguably, the most popular professional sport in the United States, an entirely different dynamic arises, especially if the encounter is captured on videotape, and the incident is the focus of much media attention and pre-trial publicity.”
Hanser ordered that the videos not be released until either a jury is sworn in for any trial for Kraft, the case against him is resolved by a plea deal, prosecutors drop charges against him, or “at any other time at which the Court finds that the fair trial rights of the Defendant are not at risk.”
The judge wrote that he is “seriously concerned about allowing the media to disclose to the public a piece of evidence that would be (or could be) central to the case against” Kraft.
But he rejected arguments by Kraft’s criminal defense team that the videos should remain sealed because of either his right to privacy, or because they are exempt from disclosure under Florida law.
Prosecutors claim in their case that Kraft visited the Orchids of Asia Day Spa in Jupiter, Florida, on two consecutive days in January, and that he received sexual services in exchange for money on both occasions. Cameras hidden by police armed with a so-called “sneak and peek” warrant captured the encounters, according to court documents.
The second visit occurred hours before Kraft watched the Patriots defeat the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game in Kansas City.
Kraft, whose team won the Super Bowl in February, has pleaded not guilty in the case.
