Sen. Larry Craig
filed court papers Monday seeking to withdraw his guilty
plea in an airport sex sting, arguing that he entered the
plea under stress caused by media inquiries into his
sexuality.
Craig, an Idaho
Republican, pleaded guilty in August to disorderly
conduct following his June arrest in a sting operation in a
men's bathroom at the Minneapolis airport. A police
report alleged that Craig had solicited sex from a
male officer at the airport, which the senator has
denied.
In a ''state of
intense anxiety'' following his arrest, Craig ''felt
compelled to grasp the lifeline offered to him by the police
officer'' and pleaded guilty to the disorderly conduct
charge in hopes the matter would not be made public,
said the court papers filed in Hennepin County
district court.
The filing said
Craig panicked and accepted the plea rather than seeking
the advice of an attorney. As a result, Craig's guilty plea
was not ''knowingly and understandingly made,'' and
the evidence against him insufficient to support the
plea, the papers said.
Craig's attorney,
William Martin, cited pressure from Craig's hometown
newspaper, the Idaho Statesman, which spent
months investigating whether Craig engaged in homosexual
encounters. Craig has denied such suggestions and
accused the newspaper of conducting a ''witch hunt.''
Statesman executive editor Vicki Gowler issued
a statement Monday defending the paper's investigation,
which she said was done with ''great care.'' She said
its length was ''due in large part to difficulties we
encountered getting information from the senator.''
When his guilty
plea became public, Craig came under intense pressure
from Senate Republican leaders and other colleagues in
Washington to resign. He first announced he would
resign effective September 30, then said he was
reconsidering that decision. A spokesman later said Craig
had dropped virtually all notions of trying to finish
his third term, unless a court moves quickly to
overturn the conviction, unlikely before the end of
the month.
Patrick Hogan, a
spokesman for the Metropolitan Airports Commission,
which runs the airport and handled the prosecution of the
case, said the prosecutor will oppose Craig's motion.
''We do feel we
have a strong case, and he's already made his plea, and
it's been accepted by the court,'' Hogan said. ''From our
standpoint, this is already a done deal. Mr. Craig was
arrested and signed a guilty plea, and from our
standpoint, this case is already over.''
Craig's
three-page guilty plea includes acknowledgments that ''I
understand that the court will not accept a plea of guilty
from anyone who claims to be innocent...I now make no
claim that I am innocent...,'' and, ''I did the
following: Engaged in conduct which I knew or should
have known tended to arouse alarm or resentment....'' Craig
signed the bottom of each page.
Craig was
sentenced to pay $575 in fines and fees and was put on
unsupervised probation for a year, with a stayed 10-day jail
sentence.
To reverse his
guilty plea Craig would have to convince a judge that
there was a ''manifest injustice'' in the case. Often that
includes sentences that were harsher than the one
anticipated in the plea bargain, but that didn't
happen in Craig's case. Legal experts have said such
motions are rarely brought, and when they are they are
rarely successful.
Motions to
withdraw a guilty plea are usually heard by the same judge
who heard the original case, usually at least two
weeks after they're requested, court officials have
said.
In exchange for
Craig's plea, the prosecutor dropped a gross misdemeanor
charge of interference to privacy. If he is allowed to
withdraw his guilty plea, the prosecutor would have
the option to refile the dropped gross misdemeanor
interference with privacy charge, which stemmed from an
allegation that Craig peered into the bathroom stall
occupied by the undercover police officer.
A conviction on
that gross misdemeanor charge could bring a jail sentence
of up to a year, although it would be unusual for a
defendant to receive the maximum sentence.
Many Republicans
have urged Craig to say for sure that he will resign.
That would spare the party an ethics dilemma and the
embarrassment of dealing with a colleague who had been
stripped of his committee leadership posts. It also
would negate the need for a Senate ethics committee
investigation, which GOP leaders had requested. (Joshua
Freed, AP)
