It is really important that before everyone hangs this guy to understand the reality of police vice work. They cops know the drill and the signals and many of they put down in the police report those act which constitute the breaking of the statute even if untrue.
In this case if Craig is a cruiser in the bathrooms, he too knows the signals the acts which constitute the offense. He would know what cops do and how they play the game of “I won’t put you in jail, you can just plead to a misdemeanor IF you answer me as I want you too. Craig was very naive and said yes to the bump of the shoe(and believe me cops make the first move often) saying the cops foot was close to the edge of the stall, yet denied the hand gestures. Craig would have denied everything if he were street wise.
Cops often lie on the reports. Especially the vice cops.
I, as a defense attorney had a client who the cops said cofessed to all the elements of the crime. The report listed each of the acts necessary to constitute the crime saying that he admitted each of them. Problem was that when I investigated I found proof that the guy spoke not one word of English. We set the case for trial, I told the prosecuter he better have his cop speaking Vietnamese by the time of trial or the cop would be duly impeached. The cop did not show for trial and the case was dismissed.
Too often, one cannot impeach the cop and juries tend to believe cops so most cases are not as easy as the one above. But make no mistake America. The justice system broken.
Let’s don’t jump the gun on this one yet.
You defense attorney? No wonder it is broken.
Good and relevant points amihow. I am not fully convinced of the evidence in this case - it is not as conclusive as one would like it to be.
Most especially, one would have expected, in this scenario, that the officer to have entraped Craig into the same toilet cubicle, and then arrested him there.
By letting Craig leave and arresting him at the door he risked losing the suspect, and the details of their interaction could be read several ways.
Rule 1: You don't talk to the cops.
I had a case with a 7 year old who found a severely broken bb gun pistol and had it in a backpack. The cops convinced the father to let the kid make a statement. He gets the kid on the tape recorder and first talks about his own son to get the kid's confidence. Then he gets the kid to talk about problems at school. Suddenly he's trying to get the kid to agree that maybe he would have liked to take the gun to school and point it at his teacher and principal. Luckily the 7 year old got upset and gave the right answer. The cop is NOT your friend. BTW the cop charged the 7 year old with illegal possession of a firearm.
AMEN!!!!