Audio Reveals Craig Claimed Innocence at Time of Arrest

Aug 30, 09:10 PM

Current Headlines: BOISE, Idaho _ The undercover officer who arrested Sen. Larry Craig in an airport men's room never accepted Craig's claim of innocence in an interrogation immediately after the arrest.

In a taped interview lasting less than 10 minutes, Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport Police Sgt. Dave Karsnia repeatedly accused Craig of lying about what he did and intended to do in that men's room June 11.

"I guess I'm gonna say I'm just disappointed in you sir. I'm just really am.

"I expect this from the guy that we get out of the hood. I mean, people vote for you," Karsnia said in the tape and transcript of the interview, released Thursday by the police.

Karsnia called Craig "sir" or "senator," but raised his voice at times.

"I know you're not going to fight me," Karsnia said. "But that's not the point. I would respect you and I still respect you. I don't disrespect you, but I'm disrespected right now, and I'm not trying to act like I have all kinds of power or anything, but you're sitting here lying to a police officer."

One major dispute in the interrogation was whether Craig reached to Karsnia's stall with his left hand _ with gold wedding band _ or his right hand, which would have been closer.

"OK. Then it was your left hand," Karsnia said. "I saw it with my own eyes."

"All right," Craig responded, "you saw something that didn't happen."

"Embarrassing, embarrassing," Karsnia said. "No wonder we're going down the tubes."

Early in the interview, Karsnia offered Craig two choices: plead guilty to a charge where "you won't have to explain anything" or go to court.

" I know I can bring you to jail, but that's not my goal here," Karsnia said.

"Don't do that," Craig responded.

"I'm not going to bring you to jail."

"You solicited me," Craig said.

The tape includes Craig's version of events, in which he says their feet touched, but accidentally, and that he reached down to grab a piece of paper _ not send some signal that he wanted a sexual encounter.

"So I go into the bathroom here as I normally do, I'm a commuter here, too," Craig said.

"Your foot came toward mine, mine came toward yours, was that natural? I don't know," Craig said. "Did we bump? Yes. I think we did. You said so. I don't disagree with that."

Craig said he travels through the airport "almost weekly" and visits the bathroom often _ but not for what the officer accused him of.

"I don't, ah, I am not gay," he said in the interview. "I don't do these kinds of things."

"It doesn't matter," Karsnia said. "I don't care about sexual preference or anything like that. Here's your stuff back sir. Um, I don't care about sexual preference."

___

TALE OF THE TAPE

Here are some exchanges between U.S. Sen. Larry Craig and Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport Police Sgt. Dave Karsnia in the police interview after Craig's June 11 arrest in an airport men's room. To hear the interview and read the transcript, go to www.idahostatesman.com/larrycraig.

Karsnia: . . . (Y)ou're skipping some parts here, but what, what about your hand?

Craig: What about it? I reached down, my foot like this. There was a piece of paper on the floor. I picked it up.

Karsnia: OK.

Craig: What about my hand?

Karsnia: Well, you're not being truthful with me. I'm kinda disappointed in you, senator. I'm real disappointed in you right now. OK, I'm not, just so you know, just like everybody, I, I, I treat you with dignity.

. . .

Karsnia: OK sir, we deal with people that lie to us every day.

Craig: I'm sure you do.

Karsnia: I'm sure you do too sir.

Craig: And gentleman, so do I.

Karsnia: I'm sure you do. We deal with a lot of people that are very bad people. You're not a bad person.

Craig: No, I don't think I am.

Karsnia: OK, so what I'm telling you, I don't want to be lied to.

. . .

Karsnia: Have you been successful in these bathrooms here before?

Craig: I go to that bathroom regularly.

Karsnia: I mean for any type of other activities.

Craig: No. Absolutely not. I don't seek activity in bathrooms.

. . .

Karsnia: I am trained in this and I know what I am doing. And I say you put your hand under there and you're going to sit there and . . .

Craig: I admit I put my hand down.

Karsnia: You put your hand and rubbed it on the bottom of the stall with your left hand.

Craig: No. Wait a moment.

Karsnia: And I, I'm not dumb. You can say I don't recall.

Craig: If I had turned sideways, that was the only way I could get my left hand over there.

Karsnia: It's not that hard for me to reach. . . . I see it happen every day out here now.

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