Muckrock by Jessie Gomez
March 22, 2019
New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft is making headlines again following charges for soliciting another to commit prostitution at the Orchids of Asia Day spa in Florida. This time around, Kraft’s lawyers are seeking to work around Florida’s public records Law and block video recordings showing Kraft engaging in sexual acts at the parlor.
Kraft is currently being charged on two misdemeanor counts with the trial well under way, which includes 24 other men accused of soliciting prostitution at the spa. Out of those 24 men, lawyers representing 14 of them are asking the judge overseeing the case to withhold records as the investigation is still ongoing.
“The video is clearly a public record,” said President of the Florida First Amendment Foundation, Barbara Petersen. “I thinking they’re misreading Florida’s public records law,”
Currently, Florida Sunshine Law assumes all records are subject to disclosure unless publicly exempt. Within the law, public records is defined to mean all materials regardless of physical form. In other words, mugshots, arrest records, and other crime reports are all presumed to be public disclosure.