Sep 10 2007
Craig To Try And Clear His Name
Everyone makes mistakes. Senator Craig’s mistakes was not on par with President Clinton’s mistakes (he was getting blow jobs in the Oval Office while talking to military leaders about risking American lives in combat – then lying under oath about it all), or those of our New Senator from LA who received a standing ovation from the GOP senate caucus when he admitted to being serviced by a prostitute. No, Craig’s mistake was not fighting back when the legal system was abused by an overly aggressive and abusive policeman (we have seen prosecutors go to jail for these kinds of acts, so lets not pretend everyone is lilly white – that is a childish fantasy). But now Senator Crais is correcting that mistake:
Sen. Larry Craig will file court documents today asking to withdraw his guilty plea in a sex sting that seems likely to end his career, his attorney said.
And to all those fair weather allies in the GOP who turned and ran away from their comrade when he needed them most….
Your support will be returned many times over for the rest of your careers, as no one will have faith in your allegience to anything or anyone ever again. Reputations can be destroyed that quickly. And in the end, it will not be Senator Craig who loses out – he has already started to win by fighting back. It will be those so called friends and allies who took this opportunity to try and shove him out of the Senate.
Idaho case law is pretty clear on this. After the imposition of sentence (which has occurred already), a guilty plea may only be withdrawn to “correct manifest injustice.†Idaho Criminal Rule 33.
As State v. Gomez, 124 Idaho 177, 857 P.2d 656 says, “it will be [Craig’s] burden to demonstrate that manifest injustice would result if his motion to withdraw his guilty plea was denied.”
Historically, this would require Craig to demonstrate that he was incompetent to decide to plead guilty, i.e., illiterate or didin’t speak English. This is a sitting US Senator, who votes to confirm Supreme Court nominees. And he made his plea in writing and by mail after ample time to retain counsel. The only way he can prevail is if he can convince the Court that he’s a total imbecile.
So he does have an outside shot.
His chances of prevailing: about 1 in 100.
Minnesota law is different, they are one of the few states that lets you change a plea like that.
I don’t think Craig can save his career, but I hope he can get the charge thrown out. I don’t like this sting operations myself. If it is that big a problem they should just put uniformed security in those places rather than undercover cops.
As I stated in my post on September 1, Craig should not have pled guilty to anything!!
1. There was no sexual, or even physical contact at all, not even his foot as someone erroneously stated.
“Craig tapped his toes several times and moved his foot closer to my foot.â€
2. The Officer was not there as an undercover prostitute, he was there to catch lewd acts taking place in the restroom, not attempt to be involved in one.
“On 06/11/07, at about 1200 hours, I was working a plain-clothes detail involving lewd conduct in the main men’s public restroom of the Northstar Crossing in the Lindbergh Terminal. The Airport Police Department has received civilian complaints and has made numerous arrests regarding sexual activity in the public restroom.â€
3. The Police Officer does not charge anyone with a crime, they can only suggest the charge, the District Attorney or the City Attorney decide the actual charges against a Defendant.
4. A Criminal charge that includes the word Lewd, is usually followed by lascivious which was not the case here. Craig did nothing that could be considered Lewd in this case because if he did, then so did the Officer.
“Craig tapped his toes several times and moved his foot closer to my foot. I moved my foot up and down slowly.â€
5. The Officer positioned himself in the row of stalls so that he would be close enough to the “action†to hear it and make an arrest for Lewd conduct or to get some guy to expose himself to him which would have been Lewd conduct, Craig did none of these which probably frustrated the Officer into arresting him.
6. The Officer did not want to make a scene, not for the benefit of Craig, but for his own so that he could go right back into the Restroom and try to catch someone who was really committing a Lewd Act.
7. Defense Attorney questioning of this Officer at trial might go something like this:
Defense Attorney: Officer , you stated in your report that the Defendant whom you described as an older white male with grey hair, was standing 3 feet away from your stall door when you observed him looking at you through the crack in the door, is that correct?
Officer: Yes
Defense Attorney: You then go on to state that you observed the Defendant look down at his hand and fidget with his fingers, is that correct?
Officer: Yes, and he would then look through the crack again, I saw his blue eyes.
Defense Attorney: You then say that 2 minutes had passed when the Defendant entered into the stall next to your once it became vacant and placed his roller bag against front of the stall door, is that correct?
Officer: Yes, to block the view from the front of the stall.
Defense Attorney: Officer, is it your claim that, in your experience, all of these observations just mentioned are signs of wanting to commit a Lewd Act?
Officer: Wel..
Defense Attorney: Yes or No please!!
Officer: Yes
Defense Attorney: Officer, you are familiar with that term fidget, are you not?
Officer: Yes
Defense Attorney: Is it not a common occurence to see an elderly person with grey hair fidget with their fingers?
Officer: Yes, but
Defense Attorney: And is it not common to see someone who has to go to the bathroom really bad to fidget while they wait for the stall to become available?
Officer: Yes, but
Defense Attorney: Officer, how much room would you say there was between where you were seated in that stall and the back of the stall door?
Officer: I don’t know, maybe less than a couple of feet.
Defense Attorney: And how much room would you say there was on either side from where you were seated.
Officer: Maybe half a foot.
Defense Attorney: Officer, is it not true that the all people who bring a roller bag into a stall would have to place it against the front of the stall?
Officer: Well they don’t have to..
Defense Attorney: Officer, have you ever seen a roller bag that was more than 6 inches wide be placed at the side of a restroom stall?
Officer: Well, no but..
Defense Attorney: Is that because it would be impossible?? and so on and so on and so on!!
SBD
The GOP cannot provide cover for Craig or try to save his bacon. Craig has been surrounded by questions regarding his sexuality (whether he SHOULD be is another issue) for decades.
Today he said he “panicked” and that was the cause for his guilty plea. If he hadn’t done anything improper why the panic? He hit the panic button again because there have been many questions about him. Last fall Craig was interviewed at length by his local newspaper; the bulk of the interview pertained to questions about Craig’s sexuality.
Now this pops up 7/8 months later.
One of the reasons the Foley episode cost the GOP so dearly was because the Dems were able to make the argument that Hastert and other GOP leaders were aware of Foley’s problems and failed to do anything about them.
Craig has been dodging questions about being gay since 1982. I have a family member who has a congressional staff job; he said no one in DC is surprised by this latest episode with Craig. He said people just shake their heads in disbelief that Craig would be so foolish to be taking these kind of chances knowing that slugs like Mike Rogers have said they would “out” him.
For the record I agree with whoever said the police should post an officer in this particular men’s room since it has a reputation for being the scene of too many gay sexual encounters.
That being said, nothing can help Craig’s political career now. Even if Craig is able to overturn his guilty plea it will be a hollow victory. When late night TV comedians are making Craig jokes, it’s time to call it a day.