This sad situation is clearly an example of the entrapment and coersion to which we all could fall victim to. To wit:
"Okay. So we'll start over, you're gonna get out of here. You're gonna have to pay a fine and that will be it. Okay. I don't call media, I don't do any of that type of crap."
And: "All right. I, I know I can bring you to jail, but that's not my goal here, okay?"
And: "I will say every person I've had so far has told me the truth. We've been respectful to each other and then they've gone on their way. And I've never had to bring anybody to jail because everybody's been truthful to me."< The threats were there re: the media and jail.
Could anyone believe the cop's assertion that "every person I've had so far has told me the truth," and that "We've been respectful to each other and then they've gone on their way. And I've never had to bring anybody to jail because everybody's been truthful to me." The man has led a charmed life or reminds people of their parish priest.
And Craig said nothing that was contradictory, and he seemed to not understand the questions asked in the twisted way in which they were framed. He did not recall some details that really were immaterial -- he was flustered, after all.
It also does not appear that the cop had probable cause to detain Craig, let alone arrest him.
No illegal transaction had occurred -- and no articuable offer and no articulable acceptance of said offer took place.
A reasonable person would gather that he was in a custodial situation before Craig was Mirandized.
The cop never disputed Craig's recollection that the "smoking-gun" piece of paper has the word "police" on it, and that is chronicled on the interview tape.
It also is not clear from the tape that Craig ever was informed of the charge(s) against him and that he indeed was under arrest as he was Mirandized.
It also is clear that the "interview" elicited no incriminating statements from Craig. Craig's political career and his reputation already are ruined, so he has little to lose and everything to gain by filing a mega-lawsuit against the city, the county, the PD, and the "arresting" officer personally for false arrest.
Even if Craig were a flaming AIDS dispenser, it is not at all clear that he committed any crime in the airport restroom.
The discovery phase of such a civil action might prove interesting indeed when the records and "arrestees" related to a goodly number of this cop's "vice" arrests were produced examined or questioned and the cop himself questioned under oath duirng one or more depositions.
It likely would prove extremely interesting to question the cop under oath in a courtroom and even more interesting to let a jury decide whether Craig in fact was falsely arrested and defamed.
I don't appreciate being harrassed in public restrooms or elsewhere, but each time an abuse of police powers and due process occurs brings all of us closer to finding ourselves someday in the clutches of one of an increasing number of governmental agencies that have proven themselves to be corrupt each and every day. Even the vaunted FBI was proven to have framed several defendants in Boston, and said defendants, I recall, served 20+ years of hard time or died while incarcerated.
And if such an outrageous situation could befall a sitting senior U.S. senator, then we all should increasingly strive employ efforts to watch our backs, the Patriot Act notwithstanding.....
I have to agree with you tracer...you make good points.
I’m bothered by the fact that there is no history to this guy in this regard...no rumors, no stories.
Why would a Senator, presumably looking for discretion, solicit sex in a public restroom he visited weekly? Wouldn’t this guy have been known to SOMEONE if he had?
I’ve been to traffic court...your word against a cop’s...cop’s can be wrong sometimes too.
Anyone ever pled guilty to a lesser charge, (even when not guilty), in order to avoid a kangeroo court and points?
Thats what lawyers are for.
Great post!
Excellent post and great analysis.
Very nice post. Well said.Thank you.
I have sent an email to Sen. Craig via his website, and asked him not to resign and to fight this with all he’s got.
The double standards need to stop, before they become defacto law.
what i DO see is the cop initiating the behavior in the performance of a sting-like operation and the defendant responding in the positive.
i'm straight. if someone did to me what the cop did to the deft., i would have grabbed his foot from under the stall and turned it around 360 degrees or until i heard a snap. the deft. had the chance to give a negative answer. he passed, and he was arrested.
as for the interview, yes the cop did give leading answer's as to what he wanted to deft. to do. so? all the deft. had to do was lawyer up and the questioning would have stopped. he was counting on his clout to get him out of a stick situation. it didn't happen. too bad.
if you're so innocent, then go to court.
Excellent post. Thank you. I’m not expert, and the guy may indeed be guilty, but we should all be troubled by how it was handled.
susie