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.
That's about the lamest excuse I've ever heard!
“Obviously you haven’t been paying attention. The last thing the GOP (or you apparently) want are conservatives. Craig is one more open borders moderate and right up the current GOP alley.”
Maybe you havent paid attention. Aside from immigration, his record is quite conservative.
was he dissapointed?
LOL.
Find a happy place, find a happy place...
My family lived in the NYC area, and my half-Irish, half Jewish mother did not do pasties. I am under the impression that Finns are stolid and stubborn, as opposed to grouchy!
“Are you speculating that Romney knew about Craig’s predelictions?”
No, its just a free guilt-by-association bash of Romney.
No Kool-Aid. This crap has been going on for ages. Just more "oversight" now.
“No one has ever gotten into my stall space in a women’s bathroom.”
Tap your foot and see what happens.
“There has been talk of Craig retiring beofre the incident. Lt. Gov. Jim Risch (R) wants to be Senator.”
I’m glad to hear they are not short on replacements.
If we don’t clean our own House (and Senate) the Democrats will do it for us.
Time for Senator Craig to decide that he needs more time fly fishing and visiting grandkids.
Or you jump to conclusions. ...nah, THAT can’t be it.
BTW, I ask the mod to remove my post. Since FreeRepublic was making news for this thread, I didn’t want the very first post to be about Craig’s support of Romney. Somehow I didn’t think it would be “fair.”
Now, I’m having second thoughts. I should have left it just to see you MittBots squirm.
Romney campaign removes Craig video
At least one Republican presidential campaign was affected by Monday’s report that a senator had been arrested for allegedly “lewd” conduct in a men’s bathroom.
“Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) — who has pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in connection with an incident where he allegedly solicited a plainclothes police officer in a men’s restroom — is one of Mitt Romney’s top backers in the Senate,” Jonathan Martin writes at Politico. “A clip of Craig praising Romney was until just moments ago available on Romney’s YouTube channel, but is now listed as ‘a private video.”’
The video was later removed from the Internet by the Romney campaign.
http://rawstory.com//news/2007/GOP_Senator_Larry_Craig_arrested_in_0827.html
I think maybe he should stick to the fly-fishing, I don’t know if he needs to be around kids.
Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho): “The closed primary would be the worst thing for the Idaho GOP”
The GOP has been busy convincing the electorate that they are every bit as debauched and corrupt as their competition.
Stories like these make me wonder if Alex Jones is not as crazy as one would think.
Ok, The GOP really needs to start cleaning house and getting rid of all these closet gays masquerading as true-blue conservatives.
We shouldn’t treat this like a catholic church presbyterium, we need to kick these wierdos about before they even get elected.
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