Prosecutors: Craig’s defense ‘patently illogical’

(CNN) — Arguments made by U.S. Sen. Larry Craig in an effort to withdraw his guilty plea on charges stemming from a public bathroom sex sting are patently illogical, Minnesota prosecutors said in a brief Friday.

The Idaho Republican is arguing to the Minnesota Court of Appeals that a state law related to his misdemeanor conviction is unconstitutional and that it is manifestly unjust not to allow the lawmaker to be given another chance to prove his innocence.

But the attorneys for the state say that Craig’s guilty plea was made properly and that a district court judge acted properly in October in not allowing Craig to take back the plea.

The defendant’s plea was accurate, voluntary and intelligent and therefore there is no manifest injustice that would warrant plea withdrawal, prosecutors wrote.

In June, Craig, 62, was arrested by an undercover officer in a public restroom at Minneapolis International Airport in Minnesota.

He pleaded guilty in August to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct. A soliciting charge was dropped.

Craig has since denied the charges — saying he was not soliciting sex in the bathroom and is not gay.

Craig’s lawyers also have argued that whatever his actions in the bathroom were were private and that the police officer who arrested him acted inappropriately by moving his own foot in response to Craig tapping his foot, stretching it to touch the officer’s foot and waving his hand under the bottom of a bathroom stall.
Prosecutors: Craig’s defense ‘patently illogical’ – found here.