A police officer sat in a bathroom stall while a detective waited outside in the concourse area. After waiting about 13 minutes, the police officer observed Craig lingering outside his stall and frequently peeking through the crack of the stall door. Craig then entered the stall to the officer's left. The police officer recorded the following observations in his report of the incident:.
At 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 moved his foot closer to my foot. At hours, I saw Craig swipe his hand under the stall divider for a few seconds. The swipe went in the direction from the front door side of the stall back towards the back wall. His palm was facing towards the ceiling as he guided it all [along] the stall divider. I was only able to see the tips of his fingers on my side of the stall divider.
Craig swiped his hand again for a few seconds in the same motion to where I could see more of his fingers. Craig then swiped his hand in the same motion a third time for a few seconds. I could see that it was Craig's left hand due to the position of his thumb.
I would also see Craig had a gold ring on his ring finger as his hand was on my side of the stall divider. At about hours, I held my Police identification in my right hand 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! Craig exited the stall with his roller bags without flushing the toilet. Without causing a disturbance, I discretely motioned for Craig to exit the bathroom. The police escorted Craig from the restroom to the airport police station and interviewed him. After Craig flashed a business card identifying him as a U.
Senator, to no avail, he was asked first about the foot signaling. Sergeant Dave Karsnia's arrest report says, "Craig stated He has a wide stance when going to the bathroom and that his foot may have touched mine. Karsnia asked: "Did you do anything with your feet? I don't know at the time.
I'm a fairly wide guy. The stalls occupied by the police officer and Craig. They then asked Craig about the hand signals, and he said that he had reached down to pick up a piece of paper that was on the floor. The police officer reported:. 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 following several months brought a long, sordid, and confusing sequence of angry denials, Craig's guilty plea to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct Aug 1 , press conferences and more denials, a promise to resign Sep 1 , an attempt to withdraw the guilty plea Sep 10 , a statement that he would not resign after all Sep 26 , and a long series of men reporting that Craig had either solicited them for sex or had actually engaged in sex acts with them.
The American Civil Liberties Union then helpfully chimed with the legal argument that those engaging in sexual encounters in closed stalls in otherwise public restrooms "have a reasonable expectation of privacy", citing a previous case in the Minnesota State Supreme Court and therefore contradicting the state's claim that Craig was inviting the undercover police officer to have sex "in public".
I'm sure that Craig found their legal argument very helpful. Any Minneapolis or Cincinnati criminal defense lawyer would be amused that the ACLU had actually weakened the state's case against Craig. Entry to the restroom in the main concourse, just to the left of the BlackBerry store.
In October Craig announced that he was going back on his promise to resign and would serve out the remainder of his Senate term in order to "continue my effort to clear my name in the Senate Ethics Committee — something that is not possible if I am not serving in the Senate. Meanwhile, one year earlier in October , a gay rights activist had reported on sexual liasons between Larry Craig and unnamed men in the men's room at Union Station, just a few blocks from the Senate office buildings in Washington, D.
Larry Craig " in the Idaho Statesman on August 28, The main men's room in Union Station in Washington D. If misbehaving U. Congressmen don't have all the stalls occupied, the public can use the toilets. It reported that "Eight men say they either had sex with Sen.
Larry Craig or were targets of sexual advances by the Idaho lawmaker at various times during his political career. In February the U. Senate Ethics Committee said that Craig's behavior was unacceptable even by U. Senate standards, saying that his "improper conduct" reflected "discreditably" on the United States Senate, and concluding that he had in fact committed the acts for which he had pleaded guilty, and that his attempts to withdraw his guilty plea were intended to evade the repercussions of his actions.
Three years after the arrest, I finally got the opportunity to photograph the notorious airport toilet when I managed to route some travel through MSP. I was a late arrival on the photographic scene according to a story in the Idaho Statesman, quoting airport workers a few months after his arrest as saying "People have been going inside, taking pictures of the stall, taking pictures outside the bathroom door A Sani-Flush blue border indicates a toilet, sink, shower, or other plumbing that I've used.
The Toilet Guru's travel suggestions. Presidents U. The Toilet Blog Updated! Mug shot of U. The police officer reported: 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 Basic Questions. Squat or Sit? CNN -- Sen. Larry Craig said he "overreacted and made a poor decision" in pleading guilty to disorderly conduct after his June arrest following an incident in a Minneapolis, Minnesota, airport bathroom. A police mug shot of Sen. Larry Craig after he was arrested at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport in June.
Tuesday, in his first public statement on the arrest, the Idaho Republican said he did nothing "inappropriate. With his wife by his side, Craig said he is the victim of a "witch hunt" conducted by the Idaho Statesman newspaper. He added: "I should not have kept this arrest to myself, and should have told my family and friends about it. I wasn't eager to share this failure, but I should have done so anyway. A police officer who arrested him June 11 said Craig peered through a crack in a restroom stall door for two minutes and made gestures suggesting to the officer he wanted to engage in "lewd conduct.
Craig's blue eyes were clearly visible through the crack in the door, Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport police Sgt. Dave Karsnia wrote in the report he filed. After he was taken for questioning, the police report says, Craig pulled out a Senate business card and asked the officer: "What do you think of that? The aide said senators, who discussed the matter by phone, were especially concerned about the business card allegation.
Craig , 62, pleaded guilty August 8 to a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge in the incident, according to Minnesota criminal records. The senator said he "chose to plead guilty to a lesser charge in the hope of making it go away.
I did not seek any counsel, either from an attorney, staff, friends, or family. That was a mistake, and I deeply regret it. The officer wrote he was on a plainclothes detail in the restroom because of citizen complaints and arrests for sexual activity there.
Karsnia wrote that when the person occupying the stall beside him left, Craig entered it and blocked the door with his rolling suitcase. The report alleges Craig then touched the officer's foot with his foot and the senator "proceeded to swipe his hand under the stall divider several times," according to Roll Call. What reportedly happened next had to be a horrifying moment for Craig — the cop flashed his badge under the stall divider , and told him he was under arrest.
Honestly, it's hard not to feel bad for Craig. But soliciting sex in a public restroom is a definite no-no in the legal sense, and the gay angle becomes pretty glaring when the culprit is a stridently anti-gay Senator in his public life. After being arrested, Craig pleaded guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct, then didn't tell anybody about it.
It wasn't even discovered until Roll Call broke the story a month later, which forced Craig into a profoundly awkward denial, with his wife at his side. In his post-arrest interview with the officer , Craig claimed that his foot may have made contact with the officer's because he was "a pretty wide guy," a comment that earned him a slightly different, damn-near branded nickname: Larry "Wide Stance" Craig.
Well, at first he said that he'd resign, but just days later his staff indicated he was reconsidering. Ultimately, he stuck it out for the entire remainder of his term , and good for him!
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