The legal battle has barely begun, but the P.R. fight between law-enforcement authorities in Florida and the Robert Kraft legal team continues.
In response to a recent admission by Martin County sheriff William Snyder that suspected evidence of human trafficking in connection with an alleged prostitution ring at local day spas simply hasn’t been found, Kraft’s lawyer has gone all in.
“Sheriff Will Snyder admitted that there was no human trafficking,” William Burck told USA Today on Wednesday night. “He lied about it. His officers lied about it. I don’t really know what to say. I’ve never seen anything quite like that before.”
Snyder nevertheless has doubled down on his claim that human trafficking is happening, even after admitting that he doesn’t have the evidence of it.
“Zero,” Snyder told USA Today regarding any regrets he may have, “because it is sex trafficking. There are several women lower down [in the alleged operation] that could still cooperate. Notwithstanding that, this has the makings of a classic, unadulterated sex trafficking ring. Period.”
This doesn’t change the fact that Snyder recently said, “It looks like trafficking. It feels like trafficking. It sounds like trafficking. I believe it is human trafficking. But we are just a little short to being able to prove that.”
“He’s trying to hide behind it by saying they didn’t find enough evidence,” Burck told USA Today. “You don’t get on a soapbox and start accusing people of being involved in human trafficking and then, weeks later, say ‘never mind’ and think that’s the way you can get away with that. . . . They are supposed to be upholding the law. They are supposed to be officers of justice, but instead he’s concocting false allegations against people in order to further headlines rather than justice. Sheriff Snyder said, ‘The monsters are the men.’ Sheriff Snyder is the liar.”
Here’s Snyder’s retort: “They can get all the high-priced attorneys they want and scream and yell that the cops are the bad ones. But the cops weren’t the ones who were having . . . sex in the spas.”
Still, allegations of having “sex in the spas” with Florida residents who are licensed massage therapists are a far cry from allegations of being customers in a human trafficking operation. Snyder knew what he was doing when he tried to blur the lines between the two, and the evidence (or lack thereof) is causing those lines to become unblurred.
