Posted on 08/27/2007 2:14:41 PM PDT by Shermy
Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) was arrested in June at a Minnesota airport by a plainclothes police officer investigating lewd conduct complaints in a men’s public restroom, according to an arrest report obtained by Roll Call Monday afternoon.
Craig’s arrest occurred just after noon on June 11 at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. On Aug. 8, he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct in the Hennepin County District Court. He paid more than $500 in fines and fees, and a 10-day jail sentence was stayed. He also was given one year of probation with the court that began on Aug. 8.
A spokesman for Craig described the incident as a “he said/he said misunderstanding,” and said the office would release a fuller statement later Monday afternoon.
After he was arrested, Craig, who is married, was taken to the Airport Police Operations Center to be interviewed about the lewd conduct incident, according to the police report. At one point during the interview, Craig handed the plainclothes sergeant who arrested him a business card that identified him as a U.S. Senator and said, “What do you think about that?” the report states.
Craig was detained for approximately 45 minutes, interviewed, photographed, fingerprinted and released, and police prepared a formal complaint for interference with privacy and disorderly conduct.
According to the incident report, Sgt. Dave Karsnia was working as a plainclothes officer on June 11 investigating civilian complaints regarding sexual activity in the men’s public restroom in which Craig was arrested.
Airport police previously had made numerous arrests in the men’s restroom of the Northstar Crossing in the Lindbergh Terminal in connection with sexual activity.
Karsnia entered the bathroom at noon that day and about 13 minutes after taking a seat in a stall, he stated he could see “an older white male with grey hair standing outside my stall.”
The man, who lingered in front of the stall for two minutes, was later identified as Craig.
“I could see Craig look through the crack in the door from his position. Craig would look down at his hands, ‘fidget’ with his fingers, and then look through the crack into my stall again. Craig would repeat this cycle for about two minutes,” the report states.
Craig then entered the stall next to Karsnia’s and placed his roller bag against the front of the stall door.
“My experience has shown that individuals engaging in lewd conduct use their bags to block the view from the front of their stall,” Karsnia stated in his report. “From my seated position, I could observe the shoes and ankles of Craig seated to the left of me.”
Craig was wearing dress pants with black dress shoes.
“At 1216 hours, Craig tapped his right foot. I recognized this as a signal used by persons wishing to engage in lewd conduct. Craig tapped his toes several times and moves his foot closer to my foot. I moved my foot up and down slowly. While this was occurring, the male in the stall to my right was still present. I could hear several unknown persons in the restroom that appeared to use the restroom for its intended use. The presence of others did not seem to deter Craig as he moved his right foot so that it touched the side of my left foot which was within my stall area,” the report states.
Craig then proceeded to swipe his hand under the stall divider several times, and Karsnia noted in his report that “I could ... see Craig had a gold ring on his ring finger as his hand was on my side of the stall divider.”
Karsnia then held his police identification down by the floor so that Craig could see it.
“With my left hand near the floor, I pointed towards the exit. Craig responded, ‘No!’ I again pointed towards the exit. Craig exited the stall with his roller bags without flushing the toilet. ... Craig said he would not go. I told Craig that he was under arrest, he had to go, and that I didn’t want to make a scene. Craig then left the restroom.”
In a recorded interview after his arrest, Craig “either disagreed with me or ‘didn’t recall’ the events as they happened,” the report states.
Craig stated “that he has a wide stance when going to the bathroom and that his foot may have touched mine,” the report states. Craig also told the arresting officer that he reached down with his right hand to pick up a piece of paper that was on the floor.
“It should be noted that there was not a piece of paper on the bathroom floor, nor did Craig pick up a piece of paper,” the arresting officer said in the report.
On Aug. 8, the day he pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in the Minnesota court, Craig appeared via satellite at a ceremony that took place in Idaho in which former Idaho federal Judge Randy Smith was invested into his new position as a judge on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
In October 2006, Craig’s office publicly denied allegations that he was a homosexual made on a gay activist Web site — blogactive.com. Craig’s office told the Spokane Spokesman-Review that the charge was “completely ridiculous,” saying that the allegations had “no basis in fact.”
Steven T. Dennis contributed to this report.
Same here. The Sarah Brady-Bunch gang hate Craig more than any one man in Washington. He's not only a powerful Senator who fervently and effectively supports the 2nd Amendment and frustrates their best efforts to undermine the right to keep and bear arms, he's also a member of the NRA board of directors and works closely with NRA activists on gun rights issues.
As I said on another post, I don't put any kind of dirty skulduggery past the liars and communist/socialist sympathizers in the anti-gun movement. But if this incident was as the cop says it was and Craig actually made a move on the cop I'm extremely disappointed in him. In addition to that, I didn't know that Craig is a big supporter of unrestricted Hispanic immigration, and that is even more disappointing. OTOH ID is a major agricultural state and illegal immigrants are the life blood of big corporate agriculture these days. If Craig was seen as anti-immigration for Hispanics by his ID constituents who depend exclusively on agriculture for their livelihood and/or wealth he would probably lose his seat for that "sin" alone.
Are there glory holes at that airport?
One of the biggest Mitt Romney supporters.
He's been in politics long enough to know that only applies to Democrats.
“Guilty as charged? DU is calling you....go to the dark if you will.”
We’re already in the dark. These perverts put us there. Now we need to climb back out into the sunlight before the DNC gets a 50 year monopoly on the majority. Corrupt and perverse people in the party are literally handing it to them.
Got to be quick on FR.
Guess Mitt is gonna need someone new to pimp for him now!
Craig should be tried and executed.
There goes the Log Cabin Vote:
At this point, with his guilty plea, it does not matter if he is guilty, he is done for.
Of course he’s a Republican.
$100 this story is everywhere for the next two weeks.
I never heard of any of it but as a man, if anyone starts tapping his foot on the floor from the next stall, I’ll have to stomp hard on that foot ‘till he runs away!!
This whole thing about anonymous sex in public restrooms really pisses me off — who wants to walk innocently into a bathroom stall and hear the sounds of sexual activity in the next stall?? I suppose that’s just my latent “homophobia” coming through...... naah, I sure don’t want to listen to heterosexual activity in the next stall, either!!
p.s. I sure pity the LEOs who have to take on this ‘vice’ duty — that’s about the last thing and the last place I’d want to be handling as a police officer.
Guess Mitt is gonna need someone new to pimp for him now!
That sort of makes me wonder about the mass marriage bit and their relationship.....
A gold ring on Craig’s RIGHT hand is NOT a wedding ring......why did the cop even mention it?
I was told in the mid-1980s by a bigwig in the Idaho Republican Party that Larry Craig had a problem in "that" area. Time for Craig to retire. Fortunately, there are lots of potential candidates who can beat Larry LaRocco and keep the seat R.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
Yeah, I’m real shocked.
No wonder why the GOP is in the mess it is now, given the characters that have been representing it.
He’ll go (GOOD!) and we better screen who wants to replace him closely rather then accept what the GOP tries to force on us at face value.
Now. If the GOP REALLY wanted to do itself good, it would expose and remove all these RINO’a now in a good clean purge. Then the People that gave them the majority might be more trusting of dong so again. But they won’t. because I have a feeling they represent the majority of leadership these days in GOP circles.
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