Robert Kraft’s attorneys question legality of Jupiter police’s ‘NSA-style surveillance

WEST PALM BEACH — Armed Jan. 18 with a “constitutionally problematic” sneak-and-peek warrant, Jupiter police reported a “phony ’suspicious package,” forcing everyone out of the Orchids of Asia Day Spa and allowing officers in to install cameras inside it as part of what Robert Kraft’s attorneys called an “NSA-style surveillance campaign.”

Kraft’s attorneys filed a 92-page memorandum Tuesday citing legal objections to how police gathered evidence — particularly the use of hidden cameras — against the part-time Palm Beach resident and 24 other men, as well as the spa’s owner and manager, in a monthslong investigation. As such, his attorneys are asking a judge to throw out any evidence obtained from the cameras, a Florida Department of Health employee’s so-called routine inspection and a supposedly frivolous traffic stop to identify Kraft.

“Because we do not live in a police state and our government answers to the rule of law, suppression of the illegally-obtained evidence is the correct and essential remedy,” his attorneys wrote.

The billionaire owner of the New England Patriots declined to make a deal with the Palm County State Attorney’s Office, which offered all 25 men charged in the bust the chance to have their cases dismissed in exchange for saying they would have been found guilty had the case gone to trial. As part of the deal, the men also would have to agree to perform community service, take a class on the dangers of soliciting prostitution, receive a screening for sexually transmitted diseases and pay both a fine and court costs.

Kraft’s legal team, including Jack Goldberger, William Burck and Alex Spiro, are fighting the allegations against him by, in part, questioning the legality of how Jupiter police obtained evidence in the cases against him. In the most recent motion, they dissect how police justified a sneak-and-peek warrant and in turn counter each of the department’s arguments.

Such an invasive tactics as installing hidden cameras should be reserved for the most serious law-enforcement investigations, Kraft’s attorneys argue, and historically have been. Such tactics are typically used by federal authorities in cases investigating drug trafficking, terrorism and large-scale counterfeit money schemes, the motion states.

“Law enforcement in this case had no authority whatsoever for something as drastic as ‘sneak and peek’ video surveillance, much less continuous, unbounded video surveillance of naked patrons in private licensed massage parlors,” the motion reads.

Jupiter police declined to comment on the filing Wednesday, saying the investigation remained open.

Also included in Kraft’s filings is the previously sealed search warrant in which Jupiter police detective Andrew Sharp asks Circuit Court Judge Howard Coates to OK the installation of cameras in three massage rooms at Orchids of Asia.

In the warrant Sharp details the department’s investigation through Jan. 15: Officers had done dozens of hours of surveillance in the shopping plaza along U.S. Highway 1, stopped men leaving the spa who admitted they paid for sex acts and confirmed that used towels in the business’ garbage had semen on them.

https://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/20190403/robert-krafts-attorneys-question-legality-of-jupiter-polices-nsa-style-surveillance