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.
“Foley sent packing”
Heeheheee
The Lovin’Sound from 1967 is one of my all time favorite songs.Glad to hear Tyson is still in the business.
You and I share the same musical sensibilty because The Skyliners with Jimmie Beaumont are on top of my list.This I Swear and Pennies from Heaven are songs I never get tired of along with Since I Don’t Have You.
I was a huge soul music fan back in the day.Rand B is what they called it but today it has no rhythm and no blues.Cookie cutter crap with no creativity.
And,as controversial as this might sound,to me the decline of black music has a lot to do with the decline of education as a priority for most black youth.There will never be any more Smokey Robinsons ,Otis Reddings or Lamont Doziers out there.Today’s writers and singers take no time to learn their craft and give their listeners credit for being intelligent.
I think he just didn't believe he was going to get busted, as this article seems to suggest: From Editor and Publisher
How Did News Outlets Miss Senator's Arrest for Nearly Three Months?
It seems to me there was enough smoke out there to alert the Romney camp to the possibility of fire.
I agree with your assessment. Could be a cop trying to justify his looitering in the john with some forced “results”. Craig should have never plead guilty. Based on what we have heard there’s no way he would have been convicted of squat (pardon the pun).
So what?
It would also be interesting to find out if that restroom was the most convenient to where his flights were. I’ll bet the restroom was not.
Based on what evidence?
I’d say his behavior certainly appeared that he was cruising for sex.
Perhaps you understand "cruising for sex" better than me (which is certainly possible) but I see nothing obvious here based on what we have been told. You think anyone would convict a man because he tapped his feet and spread his feet in the bathroom?
It could be we just have a cop trying to justify his loitering in the can with a "catch". Or could be Craig is gay and was caught cruising. Dunno. But I give the benefit of the doubt to Craig absent better evidence than this.
Even if he beats this particular charge, the real question is whether or not he should resign. Unless he has a much better explanation of that guilty plea than he has given so far, the answer is yes.
In order to stay in the closet and in power, he repeatedly lied to the public about his sexuality, thereby making himself a target for blackmail. How many of his votes were coerced?
Even if he is entirely innocent, after that guilty plea he will never regain the public trust.
He should leave office ASAP.
and what is your friggen point that you don’t understand? This man making a “principled” decision is a fraud to his family at the very least. This is a leader who sends our son’s to war. He just gave more propaganda to the surrender’s of this country, and have emboldened our enemy once again. The muslims think we are a nation of perverts, and with stuff like this, it is hard to disagree. With my son in harm’s way, this disgusts me.
Right, politics is a dirty game. I live in Washington. I am neighbors, fellow church goers and school parents with many senators, congressmen, etc.
I believe this story is true and if we do not deal with it correctly it will hurt our side.
This guy is toast, and needs to step down. NOW!
I just cannot understand the FAST RUSH TO JUDGEMENT by people who surely know not to listen to the MSM for ANY accurate information, esp when it comes to "judgements" on Republicans, esp on Republican Senators. Don't you people slamming Sen. Craig realize the Demarxists just want to get them ALL out of power?????
This is, once again, ridiculous. Much ado about NOTHING.
I don't care if there have been "rumors" about Sen. Craig. You know what? Rumors are just that - rumors. I can start a rumor that Hillary Clinton had Vince Foster killed.....but I would be called a kook. Yet there is much more evidence of THAT "rumor" than there is that Sen. Craig did anything criminal or unseemly or lewd.
"Karsnia wrote that when the person occupying the stall beside him left, Craig entered it and blocked the door with his rolling suitcase."
Why is this important? Well it indicates the reason why he was standing outside that stall for 2 minutes. He was simply waiting for one to become unoccupied. Now we don't have all the information on exactly how stalls were there and how many were occupied etc. Doesn't matter. For whatever reason Craig was waiting for a stall to empty and then claimed it.
I also have no idea why the cop adds "blocked the door with his rolling suitcase". Why is this material? If I'm traveling I bring my carryon into a stall. I certainly don't leave it outside. So this piece of information is irrelevant and appears to be included as if to imply something nefarious was going on. The way that statement is worded makes it seems as if the officer is stretching to exaggerate his case.
I had no idea that homos had their own “language” to solicit sex in this way. EW!
Yeah, blame the media for bringing shame on the GOP. Not a hypocritical bigot liar of a senator.
Here's how it would work:
Step 1. Organize a rumor campaign to give him a history of gayness. This is necessary to sell the frame up.
Step 2. Wait until your target is in a city where operatives sympathetic to your agenda will slap the cuffs on him. There is no other witness or evidence needed except the word of the cop which makes this crime unique as the most exploitable crime for a frame up.
Step 3. The senator has no way of proving himself innocent. It's his word against the cop's word with the whisper campaign predicate making it impossible for him to prevail so he pleads guilty to get it over with instead of dragging it out in court where it will be in the news every day for months. Whichever way the senator proceeds, the sting will have served its purpose.
I could easily see a conspiracy of D'rats going to these lengths to destroy a conservative but I'm not ready to believe that this was such an instance.
After Bush's term is up he better be careful not to be alone in a room with a liberal cop or that cop could slap the cuffs on him and say Bush asked him to sell him some cocaine. They had the rumor mills working overtime to create that history for Bush so the media would say "well, it's not like we didn't know he was a cocaine user so this is no surprise".
You think anyone would convict a man because he tapped his feet and spread his feet in the bathroom?
Also I don’t think Craig leads a gay lifestyle. He’s probably a closet case and his only outlet is cruising toilets. As I understand it this is often the case with closeted individuals who will not or can not come to terms with their sexuality. They lead perfectly normal lives except for cruising toilets and porn shop booths.
One of Craig’s favorite haunts I understand also includes Grand Central Station. Wait a bit...more to come I’m sure.
We’ll see, won’t we.
No. So why did he admit any guilt? Where there's smoke there is fire, PT.
sw
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