DragonCon co-founder Ed Kramer, who pleaded guilty to child molestation charges in 2013, is asking a judge to reverse his designation as a “sexually dangerous predator,” a finding that will require him to wear an ankle monitor the rest of his life.

Kramer, 56, was sentenced to serve five years of house arrest at his Duluth home as part of a plea deal under which he was also ordered to pay $100,000 apiece to three men, including two brothers, who claimed he molested them when they were teenagers. The sentence included an additional 15 years probation following his release.

Kramer never admitted to molesting the boys but entered an Alford plea just as trial was set to begin in Gwinnett County that agreed to the conviction even though he still claimed innocence.

One count of aggravated child molestation and three counts of child molestation were nolle prossed under the plea deal, which granted Kramer first offender status. He was also given credit for the time he spent in confinement before striking the plea deal.   

The petition, filed Jan. 16 in Fulton County Superior Court by Decatur solo Stephen Reba said a Gwinnett prosecutor who sits on the Sexual Offender Review Board should have recused because his office was disqualified from Kramer's pending habeas action.

The participation of Deputy Chief Assistant District Attorney Richard Vandever in classifying Kramer “was highly inappropriate and certainly violative of Georgia statutory law and the due process clauses of both the federal and state constitutions,” it said.

An individual deemed a sexually dangerous predator, the state's highest designation, must be fitted with an electronic monitoring system “for the remainder of [one's] … natural life.”

“This requirement substantially interferes with [Kramer's] liberty,” the petition said, and combines with the classification's “extreme stigma and detriment to current and future employment opportunities” in violation of his rights.  

Kramer filed a habeas action nearly a year after his plea 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 Gwinnett bench also recused, and the habeas action was assigned to Piedmont Circuit Senior Superior Court Judge Robert Adams, where it remains pending.

Kramer's petition said Porter nonetheless “continued to make prejudicial public statements” about him, quoting a November 2014 Atlanta Journal-Constitution story in which the DA said “The only way [the case] will die is he'll have to die or I'll have to die and even that might not stop it.”

The petition cites five alleged violations of O.C.G.A. 50-13-19, which provides for judicial review of contested cases.

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.”

Reba noted that Kramer's term of house arrest ended within the last year and that the ankle monitor he was ordered to wear was removed.

“Now, a member of the DA's office is saying 'put that back on,'” he said.  

“It's no secret that this has been a very contentious case, and Mr. Porter has made it almost a personal issue,” Reba said.

In an email, Porter denied that his office was disqualified and made no bones about his view of Kramer.

“The DA's Office hasn't been disqualified,” Porter wrote. “The habeas was filed against state officers so the AG is handling it. Kramer has moved to disqualify us from a motion to vacate his sentence in the original criminal case, but there's been no ruling.”

“Once again, Kramer is engaging in litigation based on false assertions of fact,” said Porter. “He is a Dangerous Sexual Predator, and the classification is correct.”

Reba said he was puzzled by Porter's claim, pointing to the state's response to the habeas petition, which includes a footnote saying, “It appears that the Gwinnett County District Attorney's office is disqualified in its entirety in this case.”

Both that filing and Kramer's petition cite the Georgia Supreme Court's 2014 order in McLaughlin v. Payne, 295 Ga. 609, in which the unanimous court ruled then-Douglas County DA David McDade and his staff had to recuse from a habeas case in which McDade would likely be called as a witness.

Kramer, a journalist and editor of a number of fantasy and science fiction works, co-founded DragonCon in 1987 and remained an active co-owner until 2000, when he was charged with molesting three boys. He reportedly suffered a spinal injury in jail and was released to pretrial home confinement.

During his court appearances, Kramer arrived in a wheelchair, attached to an oxygen tank.  

Kramer stepped aside from organizing DragonCon in 2000 but remained a co-owner until his partners bought him out in 2013.

In 2011, Kramer was arrested in Connecticut when police found him alone in a hotel room with a 14-year-old boy, and he was extradited back to Georgia.