By Steve Karnowski

A.P. writer

MINNEAPOLIS—Prosecutors argued Feb. 22 that Sen. Larry Craig’s appeal misinterprets the disorderly conduct law and his guilty plea in a bathroom sex sting should stand.

The Idaho Republican asked the Minnesota Court of Appeals last month to let him withdraw his guilty plea. His lawyers claim the state’s disorderly conduct law would apply only if witnesses other than the police officer who arrested Craig had been present.

In the response, prosecutors also argued that a district court judge did not abuse his discretion, as Craig’s lawyers contended, when he refused to let Craig change his guilty plea after he had entered it and paid his fine.

Craig was arrested last June 11 at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport by an undercover officer who said Craig tapped his feet and swiped his hand under a stall divider in a way that signaled he wanted sex. The senator was arrested in a broader sweep targeting men soliciting sex in the airport’s bathrooms.

After news of his arrest became public in August, Craig denied the allegations, insisting his actions were misconstrued and that he’s not gay. He said he pleaded guilty in hopes of resolving the matter quietly.

The prosecution said the disorderly conduct law explicitly does not require that the prohibited conduct arouse “alarm, anger or resentment,” just that it’s the sort of conduct that would tend to do so.

As they’ve argued before, prosecutors said in their brief that Craig entered the plea voluntarily as part of a deal in which a more serious charge of interference with privacy was dropped, and that he should be bound by that agreement.

Judy Smith, a spokeswoman for Craig’s attorneys, said the lawyers were “reviewing the brief and will file a response with the court.”