Craig Arrested, Pleads Guilty Following Incident in Airport Restroom

Roll Call ^ | August 27, 2007 | John McArdle

[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.

[toldyou]

“I will never again even make the indication of possibly tapping my foot anywhere near a bathroom of any kind.”

hee-hee

[Riverman94610]

Ian Tyson?Was he at one time a part of the folk duo,Ian and Sylvia?
I came up in the Fifties and Sixties.I love a good melody and smooth harmonies.Cannot STAND the headbanger garbage or this howling and growling that passes for rock today.
Groups like the Young Rascals,The Buckinghams or Gary Lewis and the Playboys would NEVER get a recording contract today.

[Digital Disaster]

Senator Pleads Guilty, Claims Innocence

U.S. Senator Larry Craig (R-Idaho) pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in Minnesota this month after being arrested by a plainclothes police officer investigating complaints of lewd conduct in a men's restroom at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

Craig denied the police account of what occurred and said he erred in pleading guilty. "At the time of this incident, I complained to the police that they were misconstruing my actions," he said in a statement Monday afternoon. "I admit I was greased-up, naked, and dangling my genitals beneath the stall partition, but who hasn't done that?"

Response to the story on Capitol Hill was cool, although Democrat Barney Frank warmly offered Craig encouragement as well as a personal invitation to join his party. Whether Frank was referring to 'party' in the political sense was unclear.

[ConservativeDude]

Ashcroft is singing there with a turncoat, a fag, and Trent Lott, who is both.

[ElPatriota]

Response to the story on Capitol Hill was cool, although Democrat Barney Frank warmly offered Craig encouragement as well as a personal invitation to join his party. Whether Frank was referring to 'party' in the political sense was unclear...

TOO GOOD!... BARNEY FRANK???????????? ROLF. I suppose JESSY JACKSON AND Sharpton won't be far behind...

Call me 'old fashion,' :) but if you go to the bath and do JUST what you're supposed to do and get the hell out asap, you will not get in this kind trouble. There is something behind this story, you'll see. ROLF

[ElPatriota]

...With so many perverts in the government nor wonder the gays are getting everything they want.

There... you put your finger on it. Just in case you don't know it yet people... There are A LOT OF FREAKS in government, and in the GOP as well... They just hide it better.

IS IT ANY WONDER THESE HYPOCRITS SEEM TO VOTE IN A WAY THE CONFUSES US?... IS IT ANY WONDER THEY SEEM TO LET US DOWN TIME AFTER TIME?

SOLUTION: Clean them up. Throw them out of office. Let's demand a bit of morality.

[Myrddin]

I'm pretty sure I signed an electronic version of the petition that was posted earlier this year. I support having the primary as a closed election so only persons registered to a specific party can impact the choice of their own party's candidates. Crossover votes from persons in other parties are often intended to screw with the results of the primary and select a weaker candidate.

[lookout88]

The real sick thing is our kids are fighting over in Iraq with guys like this voting

[BritExPatInFla]

In fairness, what illegal activities has Frank been caught in or arrested for?

[griswold3]

http://www.blogactive.com/2006/01/mister-senator.html

Monday, January 30, 2006
Mister Senator...
This post will be read by thousands and thousands of people... It’s directed at ONE person.

Mr. Senator:

Tomorrow you will be faced with a vote that may have the longest aftereffects of any other you have cast in your Senate career.

Tomorrow you will decide if your political position is worth more than doing what is right for others like you. For others like you, Mr. Senator, who engage in oral sex with other men. (Although, Mr. Senator, most of us don’t do in the bathrooms of Union Station!) Your fake marriage, by the way, will NOT protect you from the truth being told on this blog.

How does this blog decide who to report on? It’s simple. We report on hypocrites. In this case, hypocrites who vote against the gay and lesbian community while engaging in gay sex themselves*.

When you cast that vote, Mr. Senator, represent your own...it’s the least you could do.

Michael Rogers
blogACTIVE.com

*While votes on many matters are considered, votes “FOR” either the Alito nomination and the Federal Marriage Amendment are enough to qualify legislators for reporting on this site.

Ladies and Gentlemen.... if they want a cultural war, I’ll give them a fucking cultural war. Fasten your seatbelts, it’s gonna be a bumpy 2006.”

UPDATE: Some of you have asked if he will be outed tomorrow. No. The blog will report on this closeted Republican Senator between tomorrow and a time when it may most impact the reelection effort of the Senator. Just because the Democratic establishment has given up the fight for our Nation, doesn’t mean this site will...

[Theodore R.]

Well, first they keep winning the Republican nomination! Usually because they are the “friendly incumbent” that the sheeple recognize

[Combat Override Button]

“He was in a restroom known to be a place for soliciting gay sex. He was outted as gay on a gay website last October.”

For goodness sake, he was in an airport bathroom! How many thousands of men each day visit this place “known” for gay sex? Unless there is some other circumstance such as Craig didn’t have a airplane ticket, going to a bathroom in an airport seems pretty normal.

As for being outted as gay on a gay website: it seems to me that this was denied and not proven. The newspaper investigating said they didn’t have enough evidence to run the story.

For a moment, assume that Craig is not gay (or perverted). If you are a gay activist ‘blogger’ wouldn’t a great way to smear a conservative who votes against ‘gay rights’ is to say that you had a gay relationship with that conservative senator, knowing that the Senator can’t proven it one way or the other?

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

Shades of LBJ, Walter Jenkins, and Jack Valenti!

[Combat Override Button]

“The real sick thing is our kids are fighting over in Iraq with guys like this voting”

I don’t understand the comment. Do bathroom shenanigans prevent someone from making a principled vote on Iraq?

[Snardius]

In fairness, what illegal activities has Frank been caught in or arrested for?

His "partner" was running a brothel out of Frank's apartment. In fairness, that's all he's been "caught" doing...

[Timeout]

Give it up. He plead guilty.

Perhaps he shouldn’t have...now he wants to get a good lawyer and fight it? All the while the media will be reporting every titillating aspect of the accusations. No, he weighed that option and decided to take the chance that the media’s wouldn’t pick up on a misdemeanor in another state.

Think about it. You’re a straight, married, innocent guy and suddenly this cop is charging you with (flimsy) charges of public lewdness and soliciting gay sex. You hold a job where the gay lobby would love nothing more than to “out” you (they’ve been trying for years). AND YOU PLEAD GUILTY?! You wouldn’t even fight the charges? Yeah, right. You’d do everything in your power to clear your name.

[Combat Override Button]

I don’t know what he wants to do now. Too late to get a lawyer I suppose. If he were innocent, he probably regrets pleading guilty now. He certainly wishes this never saw the light of day.

Not everyone does everything in their power to fight The Man. People pay fines and cop pleas all the time to make things go away. When it is your word against the cop, there is a good chance you will lose. Ever been to traffic court when you were not guilty?

Please assume for a moment that Craig was not guilty. He is a Senator coming up on an election year. Some guy posted that you had gay sex with him and though the newspapers couldn’t find any evidence, the suspicion is still out there. Faced with a court battle versus what he might have seen as a possibility of getting away with some misdemeanor without anyone finding out he made a choice. Not an unreasonable choice in my opinion.

If he chose to fight this in court, he might have won the battle but the result of the war might have been the same: He would have become a liability to the GOP in an election year and people would demand he resign. A no win situation. Hardball politics at its worst.

[Bainbridge]

OH for heaven’s sake. The reason he plead guilty was because he was.
There are other reports of his doing this kindo f thing.. Back when Foley was sent packing the blogs mentioned Craig.
Just deal with it.

[patriciaruth]

Sounds like the Republican better get another candidate for 08 real quick like.

But I’m not tapping my toes ...

[Combat Override Button]

He probably is guilty of what he was charged with. That being said, based on what I have seen, I have reasonable doubt.

Those “reports” of his doing this kind of thing are from a gay activist blogger. That is the report. It was investigated by two news organizations and they could not corroborate the evidence and therefore didn’t run with the story.

I am just not ready to throw a GOP member under the bus because it is convenient.

Just about every conservative or neocon has been accused of wrongdoing by democrats and a quick read of DU will show that there are plenty of loonies that are ready to hang Rove for being a great political tactician. Politics are a dirty game and the opposition (and our party as well) will throw everything they can at their opponents.

There are plenty of accusations that Rush was taking Viagra to the Dominican Republic, a “well known area where people go for sex with boys and prostitutes”. And there you have it: ‘other reports are out there’. That is how the game is played. Make an accusation and keep making it. Sooner or later people will believe it. At worst if anything happens in the future to the person once accused of wrongdoing, we have already laid the foundation to convict the guy in the public’s eye. Checkmate, and the guy’s career is over.