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SENATOR LARRY CRAIG ARRESTED, PLEADS GUILTY
FOLLOWING INCIDENT IN AIRPORT RESTROOM --
Capitol
Hill newspaper, Roll Call, reports former
Senate Vets'
Chair was arrested in June at a Minnesota
airport
by a plainclothes police officer investigating
lewd
conduct complaints in a men's public restroom.
For more on Senator Larry Craig, use the VA Watchdog search
engine...click here...
http://www.yourvabenefits.org/
sessearch.php?q=larry
+craig&op=ph
We have two stories. The first is from
Roll Call and came to me by email. The second story is from
the AP.
Also...you can find the official Court document
of Craig's guilty plea and sentence here...
http://abcnews.go.com/images/
TheLaw/Craig_court_docs_1.pdf
First story below:
-------------------------
Senator Craig Arrested, Pleads Guilty Following
Incident in Airport Restroom
by John
McArdle
Roll Call
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.
-------------------------
Second story here...
http://www.sfgate
.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/08/2
7/national/w152230D87.DTL&type=politics
Story below:
-------------------------
Idaho Senator Pleads in Airport Arrest
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) --
Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho pleaded guilty this month to misdemeanor
disorderly conduct after being arrested at the Minneapolis airport.
A Hennepin County court docket showed Craig pleading guilty to the
disorderly conduct charge Aug. 8, with the court dismissing a charge of
gross misdemeanor interference to privacy.
The court docket said the Republican senator was fined $1,000, plus $575
in fees. He was put on unsupervised probation for a year. A sentence of
10 days in the county workhouse was stayed.
Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper, which first reported the case, said
on its Web site Monday that Craig was arrested June 11 by a plainclothes
officer investigating complaints of lewd conduct in a men's restroom at
the airport.
-------------------------
Larry Scott --
