Judge orders video of Patriots owner in massage parlor be destroyed

A judge ordered the the destruction of a video that allegedly shows New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft paying a massage parlor for sex.

U.S. District Judge Rodolfo A. Ruiz II issued a ruling on Friday that the videos of Kraft and other customers at the parlor be eliminated after it was determined that police obtained the footage unlawfully, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported. 

Kraft’s attorneys had pushed for the destruction of the tapes, saying Kraft worried the video showing him nude would be shared online. 

“Considering that the Videos never should have been created according to judicial rulings that are binding and conclusive, the Videos should be destroyed so that they can never be subject to any misuse, intentional or otherwise,” attorneys Frank Shepherd, William Burck and Alex Spiro wrote, according to the Sun Sentinel. 

A “neutral third party” is expected to oversee the destruction of the videos. 

Kraft was charged with misdemeanor solicitation after law enforcement secretly placed cameras in massage parlor lobbies and rooms as part of an investigation into the businesses.

Police said the footage showed Kraft and other men participating in sexual acts with women and paying them, with Kraft doing so at the Orchids of Asia spa on consecutive days in January 2019.

Kraft issued an apology after the charge was announced. 

But the charge was dropped in September following an appeals court ruling that the video could not be used as evidence in the case after police also recorded two women and two men who received actual massages. 

The anonymous people who received actual massages had filed a federal civil lawsuit accusing officials of violating their privacy, according to the Sun Sentinel. Lawyers for these people announced a settlement with Jupiter, Fla., had been reached last week without revealing details.