US senator stung by bathroom arrest can't withdraw guilty plea

Oct 5, 2007, 0:37 GMT

Washington - A US senator Thursday lost his bid to withdraw a guilty plea that arose from his arrest in a police sting against sex solicitation in an airport men's room, according to local news reports.

The conservative Republican Senator Larry Craig, 62, who has represented the western state of Idaho in Congress for 27 years, was rebuffed by a Minnesota judge, Charles Porter Jr, who called Craig's reasoning 'illogical.'

Craig's lawyers have argued that the Idaho senator was innocent of the charges and 'in a state of fear' and 'intense anxiety' when he agreed to the plea deal and mailed in his 500-dollar-fine for disorderly conduct charges during the summer.

Judge Porter found otherwise.

'The defendant, a career politician with a college education, is of, at least, above-average intelligence,' Porter wrote, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. 'He knew what he was saying, reading and signing.'

Craig has said that he pleaded guilty in hopes of putting the matter to rest, and he never consulted with his family or a lawyer.

Craig was arrested in June at a Minnesota airport - two states east of Idaho - by a plainclothed police officer who was investigating complaints of lewd behaviour and sexual activity in the men's public restroom.

In police documents, the detective described how Craig loitered outside the detective's toilet stall, peering in, then went into the next stall, where he made swiping movements with his hand and tried to move his right foot to touch the detective through the opening beneath the bathroom partition.

Craig has since declared, 'I am not gay.' He told detectives his foot moved toward the police officer because he has a wide stance with his legs when he uses the toilet.

The incident has been lampooned for weeks on television and in cartoons.

Last week, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad drew hoots of laughter and derision from a New York university audience with his declaration that there was no homosexuality in Iran - a remark that drew comparisons to Craig's 'I am not gay' speech.

A cover drawing on this week's New Yorker magazine shows Ahmadinejad seated on a toilet while a sandalled foot creeps over to touch his.

Bowing to pressure from within the centre-right Republican Party, Craig had said he would resign on September 30, pending the outcome of his court challenge.

Late Thursday, he said in a statement on his website that he would continue to explore legal options and try to stay in the Senate, where he has senior committee assignments. He said he would not seek re-election next year, and his current expires in January 2009.

'I am extremely disappointed with the ruling issued today. I am innocent of the charges against me,' he said.

Judge Porter said the facts supported the guilty plea. Craig 'knew or should have known his entrance into (the detective's) stall with his eyes, foot and hand are the type of acts that would tend reasonably to arouse alarm, anger, or resentment in others,' the judge wrote.