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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Eye On Boise

Craig was one of 40 arrested in airport sting

Forty men have been arrested since May at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport in a restroom-sex solicitation sting that also snared Idaho Sen. Larry Craig, according to the AP, and most were nabbed after going through a similar foot-tapping ritual that police said was a signal for soliciting sex. Associated Press reporter Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis reports that police records on the 40 arrests “gave strikingly similar accounts” of the signals, from tapping of feet, to moving a foot closer to the undercover officer’s foot in the next stall, to extending a hand under the stall divider.

The senator’s conduct before he was arrested “closely followed the pattern described in several of the arrests,” Karnowski reported. He also reported that those arrested in the sting included airport and airline employees, salesmen, business executives, a computer consultant and a Lands End employee, and that some were area residents and others were from out of town. Their addresses ranged from ordinary Minneapolis neighborhoods to Park Avenue in New York. Charges ranged from misdemeanors such as loitering, disorderly conduct and indecent exposure to gross misdemeanors such as interference with privacy. Some of the suspects denied they were seeking sex, while others admitted it. On June 25, the same officer who arrested Craig arrested three men at once.



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