Stephen Reba, defense attorney for Dragon Con co-founder Ed Kramer, has moved to have Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter thrown off all cases involving his client.

The October 10 motion filed in Gwinnett Superior Court accuses Porter of prosecutorial misconduct — in part because a recent child porn charge filed against Kramer was based on his possession of a published photograph from a well-known, albeit controversial, artist.

Reba contends DA Poter misled the grand jury about the nature of the photo in order to secure an indictment and prevent Kramer from possibly getting bond in another case. On September 30, two hours after Reba was in court asking for bond to secure Kramer’s release from jail, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation issued a warrant against Kramer on a new felony count of child pornography.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution article “Attorney disputes child porn charge based on artist’s photograph” explains:

…The photo in question is titled “Popsicle Drips, 1985” and comes from a provocative 1992 collection published in the book “Immediate Family”by photographer Sally Mann. It depicts the genitalia of Mann’s young son.

“The claim that the image qualifies as child pornography … cannot be supported under any legal interpretation,” Reba wrote in his motion.

Porter has not yet filed a formal response. But he denied any abuse of power and defended the most recent charge against Kramer, a registered sex offender and longtime legal nemesis who Porter first charged with child molestation in 2000.

Porter said to qualify as child pornography a photograph “has to be of a naked child, a lewd display of a naked child.” He said the fact that Mann’s photo is a published work of art was “not part of the analysis” in bringing charges.

The question of whether the photograph constitutes child porn is ultimately one for a jury, Porter said.

Mann’s photography — a collection of which will be on display at the High Museum in Atlanta starting this weekend — includes hundreds, if not thousands, of images.

“Kramer selected the ones of naked children and put them in his own file,” Porter said.

Reba’s motion argues, “The image is a copyrighted piece of art that has been possessed and displayed by famous museums, universities, public libraries, major retail bookstores, and citizens alike – in fact, Mann’s work is featured in a world-traveling exhibit at the High Museum in less than two weeks. If there is probable cause to arrest and charge Defendant for the possession of this image, so too must there be probable cause to arrest and charge the aforementioned institutions and businesses.”

The latest round in Kramer’s case also has been written up by the Associated Press in a story that ran on the New York Times website.

Porter justified his conduct before the grand just to the Gwinnett Daily Post: “Gwinnett DA Danny Porter refutes claims by DragonCon founder’s attorney of prosecutorial misconduct”.

…“That fact that an image has been published is not in and of itself controlling on whether or not it’s child pornography,”Porter said. “It’s a question for the jury, and we’ll leave that question to the jury when the case goes to trial.”

The prosecutor also denied there was any manipulation of the grand jury. Kramer was already in jail on other charges related to accessing the county’s computer network.

“The whole thing about manipulating a grand jury — we routinely, particularly in a situation where, if we had a preliminary hearing and it’s dismissed, we still could have presented the case to the grand jury,” Porter said. “In this case, with him in custody, there was no reason to have a preliminary hearing and even if this speculation that he was going to succeed was true, we still could have presented the case to the grand jury and he would have been re-arrested.”

Although that indictment is listed as the reason for the motion, there are several other complicated layers of issues looming over this matter. One of them is another indictment, for making false statement, that was handed against Kramer on the same day as the sexual exploitation charge.

Kramer had accused Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Lou Solis of physically assaulting him, but Porter said video evidence contradicted that claim. That led to the false statements charge, which Porter said he did not know about until the Sheriff’s Office sought a warrant for Kramer’s arrest. That is one of the cases Reba is trying to get Porter recused from.

Meanwhile, there have been new developments in the computer hacking case where Kramer is a defendant.

Kramer and his three hacking case co-defendants all entered not guilty pleas at their Oct. 10 arraignment hearing. Kramer, private investigator TJ Ward, Ward’s employee Frank Karic, and Superior Court Judge Kathryn Schrader have been indicted on three counts of felony computer trespass. GBI investigators allege that Schrader hired Ward to investigate her concerns that DA Danny Porter was trying to hack into her computer. It has yet to be shared why the judge believed that, and Porter has denied the claim. Kramer worked for Ward tracking the activity on a WireShark monitoring system installed on the judge’s computer.

Today, a Georgia state panel officially suspended Judge Schrader. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports:

Georgia’s Judicial Qualifications Commission handed down its ruling against Superior Court Judge Kathryn Schrader on Wednesday, nearly a month after she and three co-defendants were indicted on felony computer trespass charges. Schrader is accused of triggering a strange — and illegal — series of events by hiring a private investigator to look into her fears that someone was trying to access her work computer. 

In its ruling, the JQC’s hearing panel wrote that Schrader’s alleged actions and the subsequent criminal charges had adversely affected her ability to do her job.

“The Panel further finds that Judge Schrader’s personal decision to allow an outside third party to gain access to the County’s network — with its many subsequent repercussions, including the discovery that Judge Schrader’s actions allegedly enabled a convicted child molester to have access to Court data — also adversely affects the administration of that office, as well as the rights and interests of the public,” wrote Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, the presiding officer of the JQC panel.

The next hearing in Kramer’s criminal case is scheduled for Nov. 7.

On September 30, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation issued a warrant against Ed Kramer on a new felony count of child pornography.

Only two hours before, reports WSB-TV, Kramer and his attorney had been in court trying to get bond on another case, “insisting he had just been sitting at home, obeying the law.”

With an oxygen tank attached to his wheelchair, Kramer described to a judge his urgent need for getting out of jail for an upcoming spine surgery.

“We will be here, we will be at every court appearance. He is not going to reoffend,” defense attorney Stephen Reba said.

But just after Kramer’s lawyer offered that promise, prosecutors dropped a new charge — more child pornography.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution details the new find in “Hacking probe leads to new child porn charges for DragonCon co-founder”:

…Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter said about five pornographic images were discovered among the mountains of computer data GBI officials are pulling from Kramer’s computer in connection with the ongoing hacking case, which has also ensnared a private investigator and a sitting Superior Court judge.

The GBI took out a new warrant Monday afternoon charging Kramer — whose long, complicated legal history includes a 2013 child molestation plea — with a single count of possession of child pornography. The warrant describes one image in detail and said “additional digital image files were found of child sexual exploitation.”

The judge did not rule on the bond motion during Monday’s hearing.

Kramer and his three hacking case co-defendants are scheduled for arraignment in that case on October 10.

Two weeks ago, Kramer, private investigator TJ Ward, Ward’s employee Frank Karic, and Superior Court Judge Kathryn Schrader were all indicted on three counts of felony computer trespass. GBI investigators allege that Schrader hired Ward to investigate her concerns that DA Danny Porter was trying to hack into her computer. It has yet to be shared why the judge believed that, and Porter has denied the claim. Kramer worked for Ward tracking the activity on a WireShark monitoring system installed on the judge’s computer.

The AJC story continues:

Indictments accuse the quartet of using that access to interfere with, remove data from and otherwise “alter” Gwinnett County’s computer network.

Ward, Karic and Schrader have all bonded out of the Gwinnett County jail since their arrest.

Kramer had remained incarcerated — even before the child porn charge was filed.

The hacking case came to light when authorities seized Kramer’s home computers following a Feb. 26 arrest for allegedly taking a photo of a young boy at a Lawrenceville doctor’s office. Following that arrest, Kramer was let out of jail and placed under house arrest at his Duluth home, where he wore an ankle monitor and had no internet access.

[Thanks to Nancy Collins for the story.]

A Gwinnett County (GA) jury has indicted Superior Court Judge Kathryn Schrader, and three men — private investigator T.J. Ward, former Forsyth County sheriff’s detective Frank Karic, and Dragon Con co-founder Ed Kramer — on three counts of computer trespass reports the Gwinnett Daily Post (“Gwinnett Superior Court Judge Kathryn Schrader, three others indicted for computer trespassing”.)

The indictments handed down Wednesday said Schrader and her three co-defendants “knowingly use[d] a computer network without authority and with the intent to interfere with the use of the Gwinnett County Justice Center computer network” without authority and “with the intent to alter the computer network” in violation of Georgia’s computer trespass statute. Each felony count carries a maximum of 15 years in prison.

Kramer was denied bond and remains in jail. Judge Schrader was released without having to pay bond after turning herself in. Ward and Karic’s bonds have been set at $25,000.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution story, “Gwinnett judge, DragonCon co-founder indicted in hacking case”,

The case is being handled by the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia because Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter is considered a witness in this case. He had previously turned the investigation over to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation for the same reason.

Porter has said the judge claimed that he hacked her computer. Porter has vehemently denied having tried to access Schrader’s computer and said in an April hearing that her accusation raises questions about her ability to be impartial at the bench.

Court documents allege Schrader hired a private investigator in February because she suspected someone was trying to remotely access her county-issued computer outside of business hours. The investigator, T.J. Ward, hired Ed Kramer to monitor activity on Schrader’s computer.

Kramer, who hasn’t been involved with DragonCon for years, had previously worked for Ward as a computer forensic analyst. A “WireShark” monitoring device was placed on Schrader’s computer, which allowed Kramer to monitor it for any suspicious activity.

Investigators first discovered Kramer was working with Schrader after Kramer’s February arrest on unrelated charges. Kramer allegedly took a photo of a child at a doctor’s office, which is illegal because he is a registered sex offender. It also violated his probation related to a 2013 child molestation conviction. When police searched Kramer’s computer, officers found a file with Schrader’s name on it.

Judge Schrader has been recused from criminal cases since April, as DA Porter’s office handles those prosecutions, but she continued to oversee civil cases. The state Judicial Qualifications Commission will determine if she is allowed to stay on the bench while her own criminal case proceeds.

[Thanks to Nancy Collins and Ray Radlein for the story.]