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Loading ...Larry Craig asks court to reverse gay sex sting plea
09.10.2008 2:03pm EDT
(St Paul, Minnesota) Lawyers for U.S. Sen. Larry Craig (R) asked a three-judge panel on the Minnesota Court of Appeals to toss out his conviction for disorderly conduct that stemmed from a gay sex sting in an airport bathroom.
Craig wants the court to withdraw his guilty plea. A county judge already has rejected the request.Craig, a three-term Republican from Idaho, pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in August 2007 after he was accused of soliciting sex from an undercover police officer at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
Sgt. Dave Karsnia said Craig tapped his feet and swiped his hand under a stall divider in a way that signaled he wanted sex. Craig has denied that, saying his actions were misconstrued.
After his arrest and guilty plea became public, Craig held a news conference to say he is not gay and that he pleaded guilty only to avoid the scandal of a trial.
Since then, Craig has been fighting to withdraw the plea.
County District Judge Charles Porter refused, saying Craig’s plea “was accurate, voluntary and intelligent, and … supported by the evidence.”
Craig appealed that ruling to the Minnesota Court of Appeals, which heard arguments on Wednesday. The court gave no indication when it would rule in the case.
Craig was not in court for the hearing. His attorney told the court that Craig wants to correct a “manifest injustice” and that again the prosecution failed to show he had participated in any criminal conduct.
Prosecutors maintained that Craig’s plea was entered voluntarily.
Craig has a long history of voting against every LGBT issue that came before the Senate and of supporting two attempts to pass an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to bar gays from marrying.
As publicity mounted, Craig first promised that he would resign last Sept. 30, then reversed his decision, saying he would stay in office until his term expires next January. Craig says he is not running for re-election.
The Senate Ethics Committee in February said that Craig acted improperly and brought discredit on the Senate. In a letter to the Republican senator, the ethics panel said Craig’s attempt to withdraw his guilty plea an effort to evade legal consequences of his own actions.
Police arrested 41 men last year between May and August in the sting operation, but it did not come to light until Sen. Craig’s bust became public.
I understand and accept that some people hide their being gay. And as an extreme example, I heard firsthand from a man who said that telling his Father he was gay would probably kill his elderly and ill father. Such a terrible terrible situation.
But I have zero sympathy with gays – there are lots of them, who are their own worst enemy. Being victims of the christian right wing’s diabolical plot that gets them to be enemies of themselves, as Craig is, they help perpetuate the very crime that is committed against them and the whole LGBT community.
They are no better then the perpetrators of these crimes. We need a one word disparagement / embarassment term for them. That at least will shut them up as a supporter of the monsters who terrorize them. And that would be progress.
I no longer say f..k you to people who I really think are trash. I say “Bush you”, that our current president, a dry alcoholic who has zero intellectual curiosity, will be remembered in infamy. And doesn’t it fit, for all the suffering gay people endure every year, the thousands of suicides etc. But we need a single word for those gay folks, who in caving in to the religious right, hurt not only themselves, but the whole gay community. A word of disparagement or whatever. To at least shut them up.
Regardless of who is caught, I think entrapment is a horrible thing. A man, regardless of who he is, was arrested for making hand signals. Not because he actually had sex in that bathroom.
Hand signals. It’s ridiculous.
When heaven sends you lemons………..
Larry Craig should create his very own tap-dancing company – The Twin Town Toilet Tappers.
This is not the first time Craig was caught by police. It is his second time. Habitual pattern? You Bet!
The scum is trying to stay in power. The people have something completely different in mind for the Toe-Tapper.
Jonathan,
Pwople here and there throughout the land people are doing things in public bathrooms regardless of the potential presence of young children and regardless of who and what they are. There is no end of bad judgement on the part of all kinds of people. That fact is not a respecter of any human dictinction whatsoever. There is no one type more or less prone to this regardless of the focus of the media on public figures of “all stripes” doing dumb things. Who would have thought squeaky claan anticorruption married to a wife with kids New York State Dmeocrat Governor Elliot Spitzer would be involved in patronizing a prostitution ring getting involved in the very thing he was trying to stamp out? (I am a Democrat)
This cuts in all different directions and takes down with it the meek and the mighty, the Congrsssman and the street person, people of either party, the rich and the poor, the Bible thumper and the atheist. None are immune from their own weaknesses, but all have the opportunity to try to rise above those weakenesses which could get them potentially in trouble with the law and/or in the newspaper.
How come, with the exception of George Michael, someone gets caught in a bathroom having “gay sex” it’s a Bible thumping Christian or a far right Republican?
Repression is an ugly beast.
Bottom line – he made a deal and it backfired, now he’s trying to back out. Of course the guy is guilty. suck it up Larry deal with it and move on.
No wonder gay people get a bad name, doing it in an airport toilet is one thing but trying to get charges dropped is another, typical Politician arrogance, he should be made to pick up litter or clean up graffiti!!!! Or dog poo even better
Senator Larry Craig is a classic closet case. Please don’t criticize 365 for the question marks. I understand why they were placed there.
Craig is a disgusting closet Republican Queen.
Why is taxpayer money and court time being wasted on this closeted, skanky queen’s cheap attempt to assuage his own personal embarrassment over getting caught?
What is up with all the question marks?????????????????