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The New York Times
Prosecutors Say Craig
Plea Should Stand
By AP from
nytimes.com on the Web, February 23, 2008
MINNEAPOLIS, Feb. 22 --
Prosecutors argued Friday that Sen. Larry Craig's appeal misinterprets the
disorderly conduct law and his guilty plea in a bathroom sex sting should stand.
The Idaho Republican asked the Minnesota Court of Appeals last month to let him
withdraw his guilty plea. His lawyers claim the state's disorderly conduct
law would apply only if witnesses other than the police officer who arrested
Craig had been present.
In the response, prosecutors also argued that a district court judge did not
abuse his discretion, as Craig's lawyers contended, when he refused to let Craig
change his guilty plea after he had entered it and paid his fine.
Craig was arrested June 11 at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport by an
undercover officer who said Craig tapped his feet and swiped his hand under a
stall divider in a way that signaled he wanted sex. The senator was
arrested in a broader sweep targeting men soliciting sex in the airport's
bathrooms.
After news of his arrest became public in August, Craig denied the allegations,
insisting his actions were misconstrued and that he's not gay. He said he
pleaded guilty in hopes of resolving the matter quietly.
The disorderly conduct statute refers to conduct that a person knows or
reasonably should know ''Will, or will tend to, alarm, anger or disturb others''
or ''who engages in offensive, obscene, abusive, boisterous or noisy conduct ...
tending reasonably to arouse alarm, anger or resentment in others.''
The prosecution said the law explicitly does not require that the prohibited
conduct arouse ''alarm, anger or resentment,'' just that it's the sort of
conduct that would tend to do so.
As they've argued before, prosecutors said in their brief that Craig entered the
plea voluntarily as part of a deal in which a more serious charge of
interference with privacy was dropped, and that he should be bound by that
agreement.
They also rejected claims by Craig's attorneys that even if he had used hand
signals to communicate a desire for sex, such actions would be constitutionally
protected free speech.
And the prosecutors disputed claims made in a friend-of-the-court brief filed by
the American Civil Liberties Union, which said that even if Craig did seek to
have sex in the bathroom, he had a legal expectation of privacy. The ACLU
said his alleged actions weren't illegal. The prosecutors countered that
Craig's alleged actions all took place in a public place.
Judy Smith, a spokeswoman for Craig's attorneys, said the lawyers were
''reviewing the brief and will file a response with the court.''
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