Curtis told cops a lot, but tried to keep tryst quiet
Posted by David Postman at 09:47 AM
Apparently the news about Larry Craig didn't make it to La Center. That's where Republican Rep. Richard Curtis lives. There's really no other way to figure out why Curtis thought he could call the cops, tell them every little detail of his sexual encounter with a man he picked up at an "erotic boutique," and expect the matter would be kept quiet. Craig, of course, thought that pleading guilty in Minneapolis would keep his alleged airport bathroom cruising quiet.
But from the start of Curtis' trouble — when he awoke in Spokane's fanciest hotel after a night of sex with a man known in some circles as "Stallion" who said he had left with Curtis' wallet and explicit photos of the legislator — he was hoping to control the damage to his reputation and his marriage. Curtis didn't call the Spokane cops. Instead, he called a friend in the Washington State Patrol on the other side of the mountains because, a police report says, he worried "the local police would talk and it would get out to the press."
The State Patrol is not the Legislature's private police force and the trooper called his superiors who made sure the Spokane Police Department was contacted. And once Curtis made his call, it was impossible that his troubles would remain a private matter. It's all in the report written by a Spokane detective after he, another local cop and a State Patrol officer, showed up at the hotel to talk with Curtis.
Curtis stated he only wanted his wallet back and wanted to keep the incident as low key as possible. He did not want to pursue charges.