The three-judge panel of the West Palm Beach District Fourth Court of Appeals said in a 23-page decision that “the trial courts did not err” in removing the use by the prosecution of the video showing Kraft in a massage parlor.
“The type of law enforcement surveillance used in these cases is extreme,” the appeals court ruling said. “Although certain situations may justify the use of the techniques in question, the strict Fourth Amendment safeguards developed over the past decades must be observed. If they are not, any evidence obtained could very well be declared inadmissible under constitutional law. ”
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody’s office is reviewing the decision, according to spokeswoman Lauren Schenone Cassedy.
Lawyers for Kraft have challenged the validity of the search warrant that allowed authorities to install hidden cameras inside the spa, claiming it violated its Fourth Amendment rights and Florida law. A Palm Beach County judge agreed in May 2019 and decided to remove the video, thereby quashing the criminal case against him.
His lawyers argued law enforcement had not done enough to downplay the extent of surveillance they were conducting at the day spa.
Florida Deputy Solicitor General Jeffrey DeSousa had asked the superior court to overturn the ruling, arguing state efforts to prosecute prostitution, racketeering and human trafficking charges were threatened by the removal evidence obtained with a legal warrant.
Prosecutors now have to decide how to move forward without using video evidence in the Kraft case.
The appeals court said the warrants obtained in these cases “did not have any specific written parameters to minimize the registration of innocent massage seekers, and law enforcement did not actually use sufficient minimization techniques. to monitor the video or decide what to record “.
“In all of the investigations, some innocent spa-goers have been videotaped and watched undressed,” said the judgment. “There was no suggestion or probable reason to believe that spa clients were receiving sexual services, but law enforcement largely failed to take the most reasonable, basic, and obvious minimization technique. , which was simply not to monitor or register spa clients. ”
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