Mar 8, 2008 2:55 pm US/Central
Man Arrested In Same Sting As Craig Is Acquitted
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) ―
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Craig was arrested June 11 in the same operation.
AP
A Minneapolis man arrested in the same airport bathroom sex sting as U.S. Sen. Larry Craig has been acquitted.
Thirty-nine-year-old Vince Tuzon used a similar argument to Craig in pleading not guilty. Tuzon claimed he wasn't guilty because the police officer initiated the foot-tapping.
On Friday, a Hennepin County jury agreed with Tuzon.
"My client really feels that he was set up," defense lawyer Jeffrey Dean said. "He stopped in to use the restroom. He was using the toilet when he was essentially bombarded with overtures."
The Metropolitan Airports Commission was "disappointed" with the ruling, spokesman Pat Hogan said.
"Every case is different, and we respect the jury's decision," he said. "That's just the way this one went."
The sting operation was conducted at a busy restroom in the Lindbergh Terminal of the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport from May to August last year. It went along relatively quietly until it was divulged in August that Craig, a Republican from Idaho, was cited on June 11.
Craig initially pleaded guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct and paid $575 in fines. But he said that he pleaded guilty to try and keep the incident out of the media and has since asked the state Appeals Court to let him withdraw the plea.
Craig claims in his appeal that the state's disorderly conduct law is flawed. Airport lawyers say his guilty plea should stand. In that appeal, Craig's lawyers argue that police initiated the contact, which is the argument Tuzon used to be acquitted on Friday.
"My client feels that the police conduct was very abusive, and he was entrapped and set up," Dean said.
Dean said Tuzon went into the restroom on July 5 to use the bathroom and was in a stall with undercover police on both sides.
The lawyer said one officer and Tuzon began tapping feet, "which led to my client finally doing what the officer communicated my client to do, which was look into his stall, at which point they arrested him. ... We feel that that is misconduct and abusive and this would've never happened had the police never started all of this."
The lawyer used a similar argument with another client, who was found guilty. Dean is appealing that case.
Hogan said Dean's two clients are the only men of the 41 cited with indecent conduct in the operation to take their cases to trial.
"Nearly all of them have already been settled," Hogan said.
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In 2008, the Human Rights Campaign
gave Craig a zero rating, meaning he consistently voted in a manner that did not support the HRC's position of civil equality for the GLBT community.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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