Criminal Justice
Sen. Craig Gets Hearing on Plea Change
Posted Sep 11, 2007, 03:39 pm CST
By Martha Neil
An embattled Republican Senator from Idaho will get a hearing later this month on his request to withdraw his guilty plea to a disorderly conduct charge resulting from a Minnesota restroom sting operation.
Sen. Larry Craig will get his day in court on Sept. 26, a few days before the Sept. 30 deadline he set for resigning his Senate seat, reports Reuters. However, he has since indicated he might not resign if he could clear his name. The case, which concerns Craig's alleged hand-signal and foot-tapping efforts to arrange sex with a male undercover officer in a men's room at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport, is being heard in Hennepin County District Court in Edina, near Minneapolis.
As discussed in earlier ABAJournal.com posts, experts initially said that Craig might have won at trial, if he had fought the charge, but probably could not withdraw his adjudicated guilty plea.
However, a recent state appellate court decision appears to open the door to a possible plea withdrawal, and Craig's counsel reportedly filed a motion Monday seeking to reopen the case, as discussed in more recent ABAJournal.com posts.