Last December the state of Georgia’s Sexual Offender Registration Review Board (SORRB) designated Dragon Con co-founder Ed Kramer a “sexually dangerous predator,” the ranking with the highest perceived risk for recidivism. Georgia law requires “SDPs” to be monitored by GPS for the rest of their lives. Kramer’s attorney has filed a motion contesting the decision.

Kramer pleaded to three counts of child molestation in 2013 as trial was set to begin in Gwinnett County, entering an Alford-type plea as provided under Georgia case law in which he agreed to the conviction even though he still claimed innocence. Kramer agreed to pay damages to the victims and was sentenced to serve a term of confinement at home.

Kramer’s term of house arrest ended within the last year and the ankle monitor he was ordered to wear was removed. However, with the SDP designation, he will have to resume wearing an electronic monitoring system for the rest of his life.

Georgia’s SORRB is required by state law to determine the risk level of sex offenders convicted in the state and places them into one of three categories: Level 1, which indicates a low risk for recidivism; Level 2, which indicates an intermediate risk of recidivism; or Level 3, sexually dangerous predator, which indicates a person’s high probability of reoffending.

Kramer’s lawyer Stephen Reba, in the petition filed January 16, said state law and due process were violated by the SORRB due to the failure of a Gwinnett prosecutor who sits on the Sexual Offender Review Board to recuse himself, because his office was disqualified from Kramer’s pending habeas action.

In 2014, months after entering his Alford plea, Kramer filed a habeas action  arguing that Gwinnett District Attorney Danny Porter improperly influenced the trial judge. Since that made Porter and his office witnesses, the petition said his office was disqualified from involvement in the habeas case, and the office of the state attorney general entered as counsel for the respondent.

The Daily Report Online quoted Kramer’s attorney:

Reba said it appeared clear that having Vandever sit on the panel deciding Kramer’s risk assessment is a constitutional violation.

“Whether it violates [the law’s] statutory authority—we’ll see, but I think the due process violations would be the relevant controlling law,” said Reba. “We have a case where a member of this board is making this decision when they’ve been disqualified from the underlying case.”

(Incidentally, all the Gwinnett County judges recused themselves from the habeas action, which is now assigned to Piedmont Circuit Senior Superior Court Judge Robert Adams and remains pending.)

Kramer’s status as a Sexually Dangerous Predator remains unchanged at this time. In fact, the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Office added Kramer’s photo to its Facebook album “Sexually Dangerous Predators in Gwinnett” on May 7.

Kramer hasn’t been affiliated with Dragon Con since his partners bought him out in 2013.