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Sen. Craig: Hand Signals Protected Speech
Seeking to have his guilty plea in a bathroom sex sting erased, the attorneys for Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho argue in a new court filing that the underlying act wasn’t criminal because it didn’t involve multiple victims.
An appeals brief filed Tuesday contends that Minnesota’s disorderly conduct law “requires that the conduct at issue have a tendency to alarm or anger ‘others”‘ – underscoring the plural nature of the term.
Craig’s brief goes on to cite other convictions that were overturned because the multiple-victim test wasn’t met. His lawyers apply the same logic to his case.
. . .
“Appellant’s alleged conduct in this case affected only a single individual – Sergeant Karsnia,” the Craig brief says. “It did not – and could not affect ‘others’ as the disorderly conduct statute requires, and therefore, does not satisfy that element of the statute.”
The brief also argues that Karsnia himself could not have been offended by the alleged conduct because “he invited it.” The alleged conduct, Craig’s lawyers added, doesn’t rise to the level of being “offensive, obscene, abusive, boisterous or noisy.”
. . .
Besides attacking the law he was prosecuted under, Craig’s legal team argues that the hand signal allegedly used to communicate a desire to engage in sexual conduct would be constitutionally protected speech. They also say the plea is technically flawed because it lacked a judicial signature.
Patrick Hogan, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Airports Commission, which oversees the Minneapolis airport and which brought the charges, said he was confident the guilty plea will stand.
“Facts are resilient, and Sen. Craig’s continued, transparent efforts to escape them don’t change the truth of his behavior in an airport restroom or the fact that he admitted guilt last August,” Hogan said.
Prosecutors have 45 days to respond, and then the case will be scheduled for oral arguments. Once heard, a ruling is required within 90 days.
Associated Press
January 8, 2008
