Court is scheduled for Monday to discuss salacious video involving New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft at the Orchids of Asia Day Spa. The hearing is set to begin at 1:30 p.m.
This hearing is separate from the one that happened Friday and is expected to continue Tuesday. That hearing was concerned over whether prosecutors would have to completely nix the salacious footage from their case. In other words, the defense was trying to stop a jury from seeing it. Police said they had secretly recorded video of Kraft and other alleged johns at the spa. Attorneys for the New England Patriots owner said such footage was unlawfully obtained.
Lawyers for Lei Wang and co-defendant Hua Zhang, the women charged with running the spa, also ask that all video recordings made by the Jupiter Police Department in the Orchids of Asia Day Spa investigation be suppressed. Testimony and evidence gleaned during the “illegal surveillance” must also be prohibited, they said a Tuesday filing obtained by Law&Crime.
Monday’s hearing in touches on a related but technically distinct issue. It covers whether prosecutors must release footage to the public under Florida law. Circuit Judge Joseph Marx ruled on April 17 that he didn’t want any video in the case released until he made a decision about it on Monday. Judge Leonard Hanser, who presides over Kraft’s case, ruled last Tuesday that footage allegedly depicting the defendant should be kept under seal for as long as the criminal case lasts.
[Image via Kevin Winter/Getty Images]
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