Prosecutors in day spa prostituion sting turn up the heat on Patrios owner Robert Kraft
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Florida prosecutors just raised the stakes in New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft’s fight against prostitution charges.
It’s been nearly a year since the 78-year-old part-time Palm Beach resident paid for sex acts at a Jupiter massage parlor likened to a brothel.
But now lawyers for the state are arguing for the first time that Kraft — charged with two misdemeanor counts of soliciting prostitution — actually committed a felony.The latest court filing from the attorney general’s office suggests Kraft could face a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison, if the state wins its appeal of a lower court order favoring the billionaire.Elevating multiple misdemeanors to a felony would be an unusual move.“I literally have never seen that enhancement used in any county,” said veteran criminal defense attorney Jack Fleischman, who is not connected with the litigation. “It has to be rare.”So, for that matter, is the high-profile Kraft case.Observers across the country view it as a constitutional test that pits police powers to investigate crimes — specifically the authority to use secret cameras — against individual privacy rights.
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