Posted on 04/27/2019 3:48:26 PM PDT by Kaslin
With all the buzz about the Democratic primary race eating up the headlines, it’s easy to lose track of some of the other important stories. You know, things like foreign policy, the situation in Venezuela, Social Security imploding and… Bob Kraft’s hooker trial. Yes, attorneys for the New England Patriots owner are still keeping busy in the courtroom and the prosecutors are out on the streets continuing the action as well. Just this week, officers arrested the woman accused of providing Kraft with some bonus services at a massage parlor in Jupiter, Florida. (WPTV News)
A woman accused of performing an illegal sex act on New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft at a Jupiter day spa is now under arrest.
58-year-old Shen Mingbi was booked into the Palm Beach County Jail on Monday.
According to the Jupiter Police Department, a hidden surveillance camera recorded Mingbi performing a sex act on Kraft at Orchids of Asia Day spa on Jan. 19. Afterward, he paid her and another spa worker, 39-year-old Lei Wang, in cash, police said.
It’s worth noting that the entire premise for the investigation and the arrests were originally focused on rescuing women from the sex trafficking trade. Now they’re arresting the women (and dozens of male customers) on a variety of low-level misdemeanor charges. That’s not to say that there was nothing wrong (or at least illegal) going on, but the story has certainly shifted in focus, hasn’t it?
Meanwhile, as I mentioned above, Kraft’s lawyers are still trying to get the video of him with the alleged prostitutes thrown out. And at least thus far, they seem to be winning the battle. As the AP reported yesterday, the judge in the case has agreed to keep the video out of the media’s hands, at least until the trial begins. But with that victory secured, Team Kraft is pushing to have it permanently destroyed so it can’t even be used at trial.
The New England Patriots owner’s high-profile attorneys went toe-to-toe Friday with some of Palm Beach County’s best, most-experienced prosecutors as they tried to persuade a judge to throw out secretly recorded video that police say shows Kraft paying for sex acts at a massage parlor. His attorneys want the videos sealed and never seen by the public. After six hours in court Friday, they are nowhere near finishing their presentation. It will resume Tuesday.
Kraft’s attorney Alex Spiro questioned lead detective Andrew Sharp for nearly the entire session. They went line-by-line through the Jupiter detective’s application for the search warrant that allowed him to surreptitiously install cameras in the Orchids of Asia Day Spa’s ceiling. They went over the minutia of his investigation, sometimes repetitively, sometimes humorously.
This motion is dragging on for weeks. And we should keep in mind that all of this courtroom drama is unfolding over a case involving a second-degree misdemeanor. Kraft is running up legal fees that will doubtless reach into the millions to avoid a fine that wouldn’t pay one of his attorney’s fees for fifteen minutes and most likely a suspended sentence of some community service. Of course, what he’s really trying to avoid is the headlines that would follow a conviction.
Kraft’s lawyers are arguing that the original warrant allowing the lead detective to install hidden cameras in the ceiling of the massage parlor (done after they planted a fake bomb at the strip mall and hustled all the employees and customers out “for their own safety”) was an overreach and an invasion of the privacy of all concerned. For their part, the prosecutors claim Kraft had little expectation of privacy while patronizing a public business establishment and, even if he did, the defense would need to show that the warrant was illegal before the question could be answered.
It certainly sounds as if the detectives had ample reason to believe that there was prostitution taking place. But if was strictly a solicitation bust, would a judge have approved a warrant for video surveillance rather than sending in some undercover agents to find out if sex was on the menu? When the detectives framed it as possible human trafficking, however, the stakes went up considerably and a warrant was readily granted. Now that no trafficking was found, does that make the warrant retroactively illegitimate?
That’s the question the judge, in this case, will need to decide. If Kraft’s team can pull this off and have the video permanently sealed, most of these cases will probably fall apart. Either way, this court case is going to go down in the history books of trials as one of the more bizarre ones, even by Florida standards.
Smell my finger!
A billionaire uses a 58 year old for sex?
Kraft’s wife died about 5 years ago.
Oh yeah? How pure and clean is that DA? He ever cheated on his wife? Closet homo? Look at weird porn? Cheat on his taxes?
Even those cops thought they were pretty clever to pick a fight with a billionaire, billionaires have lots of money to hire private investigators.
Should one put the “squeeze” on an “alleged” girl or wait for a “squeeze” from a girl ??? This makes one want “squeezing” but stay clean, please
My guess is that discretion was part of the attraction. Too bad the cops had their eyes on the place. My understanding is that crackdowns usually occur because of complaints from the neighbors. Anyway, a snapshot of the masseuse:
[Should one put the “squeeze” on an “alleged” girl or wait for a “squeeze” from a girl ??? This makes one want “squeezing” but stay clean, please]
My thoughts exactly ...58 ? 39?
For a fraction of the costs and with none of the scandal
he could have gone to Bangkok , or a host of other SEA places , for a week and stayed exceedingly happy with a non stop line of 20 somethings . They guy deserved to be busted if he was that stupid and undiscriminating .
Had BJ clownton ever visited a massage parlor or is he simply a rapist ???
No, but the masseuses did.
CC
His family might wonder where he is for the week.
:-P
BJ loved out of county flights to lolitaville
A DA has broad powers, unlimited time, unlimited government money, and almost always a lot of arrogance political ambition. Because Kraft resisted them, and is fighting back, I guarantee the the response from a DA will be get down and dirty.
I hope Kraft continues to fight them.
I live in NY State. How do DA's and AG's here earn their political stripes? by highly politicized prosecutions. Cuomo, Spitzer, Schneiderman are all amoral political creatures, who used their prosecutorial powers to try and jump to the next level. We know what happened to Spitzer and Schneiderman. Their true characters were revealed for all to see.
So a billionaire hired a 58 year old hooker?
I don’t get it.
why is this a big deal?
is Kraft afraid of losing his football team?
Cebu is nice and quiet.
Maybe it’s because I live in Patriot country, but this Bob Kraft thing makes prostitution look more harmless and innocent and wholesome - old guy wanting a little love - than it actually is. Very ugly and sordid business.
That’s the question the judge, in this case, will need to decide. If Kraft’s team can pull this off and have the video permanently sealed, most of these cases will probably fall apart. Either way, this court case is going to go down in the history books of trials as one of the more bizarre ones, even by Florida standards.
Me love you long time...for fifty bucks.
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