Prostitution charges against Patriots owner Kraft dropped
Florida prosecutors on Thursday dropped charges against the New England Patriots’ billionaire owner Robert Kraft more than after he was accused of soliciting prostitution services at a massage parlor.
Online court documents from the Kraft case in Palm Beach County are identified with two notes indicating “Nolle Prosse,” indicating the case has been dropped.
State Attorney Dave Aronberg said he had no choice but to drop the charges after an appeals court ruled last month that videos implicating Kraft and 24 other men had been illegally obtained by police.
“It is not a lack of will that caused us to drop the charges in the spa cases,” Aronberg told the Sun Sentinel newspaper. “We had been ready to take the cases to the end, but our hand was tied.”
The appeals court ruled on August 19 that prosecutors couldn’t use the tapes, which were secretly recorded by police investigating a prostitution ring operating out of the Orchids of Asia Day Spa in Jupiter, 90 miles north of Miami.
Police alleged that the women who worked at the spa came mostly from China and had come to Florida answering deceptive job offers.
According to police they were forced to offer sexual services, although ultimately no human trafficking charges were brought in the case.
Kraft, 79 was one of 25 men charged with the misdemeanor of soliciting prostitution in February of last year.
He pleaded not guilty, although he also issued an apology in which he said he knew he had “hurt and disappointed” his family, close friends, co-workers and Patriots fans. (AFP)
