Florida prosecutors on Tuesday appealed a court ruling disallowing the use of video evidence they claim shows New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft paying for sex in a Jupiter massage parlor, according to The Associated Press.
Prosecutors in Attorney General Ashley Moody’s (R) office filed the appeal just ahead of a deadline that would likely have led to the misdemeanor charge being dropped without further action, according to the AP.
The AG’s office said the judge who threw out the video made numerous errors, and that the warrant allowing hidden cameras in the Orchids of Asia day spa was legal, according to the news service.
{mosads}Palm Beach County Judge Leonard Hanser ruled in May that the warrant “did not satisfy constitutional requirements,” including Kraft’s “reasonable, subjective expectation of privacy” in the massage parlor.
Attorneys for Kraft argued that taking “continuous video recordings of private massages in which customers would be stripping naked as a matter of course” violated both his and all other customers’ privacy.
The ruling suppressed all evidence obtained through police video surveillance of Kraft and ruled the traffic stop where they identified him leaving the facility an unlawful search. Prosecutors planned to make the video public in April before another judge ordered its release blocked.