FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Flori­da pros­e­cu­tors dropped a mis­de­meanor charge against New Eng­land Patri­ots own­er Robert Kraft on Thurs­day after courts blocked their use of video that alleged­ly shows him pay­ing for mas­sage par­lor sex.

Palm Beach State Attor­ney Dave Aron­berg will explain the deci­sion dur­ing an online press con­fer­ence lat­er Thursday.

Palm Beach Coun­ty court records show that the own­er and man­ag­er of the Orchids of Asia Day Spa are still fac­ing numer­ous felony charges relat­ed to run­ning a house of prostitution.

The Flori­da 4th Dis­trict Court of Appeal found last month that Jupiter police vio­lat­ed the rights of Kraft and the oth­er cus­tomers when they secret­ly installed video cam­eras inside mas­sage rooms at the spa in ear­ly 2019. The court then blocked use of the video footage at trial.

The record­ings, which have not been made pub­lic, are the only known evi­dence the men paid for sex. It could not be imme­di­ate­ly deter­mined if the charges against the oth­er men have also been dropped, but that is likely.

Pros­e­cu­tors decid­ed this week not to appeal that deci­sion to the Flori­da Supreme Court, say­ing a loss there could have “broad­er, neg­a­tive impli­ca­tions” on future law enforce­ment inves­ti­ga­tions beyond the Kraft case.

Kraft’s attor­neys have already filed a motion ask­ing that the record­ings be destroyed so they could nev­er be released to the pub­lic. They said Kraft might be will­ing to pay the state’s costs if any­one chal­lenges a destruc­tion order.

Kraft, 79, could still face sus­pen­sion or oth­er pun­ish­ment from the Nation­al Foot­ball League.

He and the oth­ers were charged in Feb­ru­ary 2019 in a mul­ti­coun­ty inves­ti­ga­tion o f mas­sage par­lors that includ­ed the secret instal­la­tion of video cam­eras in the spas’ lob­bies and rooms. Police say the record­ings show Kraft and oth­er men engag­ing in sex acts with women and pay­ing them.

Police say they record­ed Kraft, a wid­ow­er, pay­ing for sex acts at the Orchids of Asia spa on con­sec­u­tive days in Jan­u­ary 2019. Kraft plead­ed not guilty but issued a pub­lic apol­o­gy for his actions.

A coun­ty court judge orig­i­nal­ly threw out the record­ings, say­ing the war­rant allow­ing the cam­eras’ instal­la­tion didn’t suf­fi­cient­ly pro­tect the pri­va­cy of inno­cent cus­tomers who received legal mas­sages. The 4th Dis­trict agreed, rul­ing that plant­i­ng video cam­eras in pri­vate spaces is an “extreme” mea­sure that should only be used when absolute­ly necessary.

“To per­mit oth­er­wise would yield unbri­dled dis­cre­tion to agents of law enforce­ment and the gov­ern­ment, the antithe­sis of the con­sti­tu­tion­al lib­er­ty of peo­ple to be secure against unrea­son­able search­es and seizures,” the court ruled.

Pros­e­cu­tors argued that they need­ed the record­ings to con­vict the Orchids of Asia own­ers of felonies, includ­ing pos­si­ble human traf­fick­ing — though no one was charged with that crime. The own­ers must be shown receiv­ing pay­ments from the pros­ti­tutes and the only way to get that is to install cam­eras, pros­e­cu­tors said.

If con­vict­ed, Kraft would have like­ly received a fine, com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice and oth­er sanc­tions that did not include jail time.

Accord­ing to Forbes Mag­a­zine, Kraft is worth almost $7 bil­lion. He employed sev­er­al high-priced attor­neys to defend him in the case.