Judge Kathryn Schrader, Gwinnett County Superior Court. (PHoto: John Disney/ALM)

Suspended Gwinnett County Superior Court Judge Kathryn Schrader's defense attorney is challenging the judge's felony indictment, calling it "fatally defective." 

Attorney B.J. Bernstein said the felony indictment accusing Schrader of three counts of computer trespass fails to offer any "sufficient allegation of a crime" and that, if the judge were to admit to the acts outlined in the indictment as allegedly criminal she could "still be innocent."

As a sitting superior court judge, Schrader and her staff legally had authority to access the Gwinnett County justice system's computer network in "fulfilling the job of her elective office," Bernstein argued in a demurrer filed in advance of a pretrial hearing scheduled for Thursday. 

"The indictment does not address how she did not have authority [to] access the computer network," she said.

The lawyer also contended the indictment fails to specify how Schrader allegedly intended to interfere with or alter the computer network.

"The indictment must sufficiently apprise the defendant of what she must be prepared to meet," Bernstein said. "This indictment does not do that."

Bernstein declined to comment on the pleading.

Schrader has pleaded not guilty to the charges. So have three co-defendants Schrader allegedly hired to monitor her court computer over fears that it had been hacked by Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter.

T.J. Ward, a private investigator; Frank Karic, a forensic computer investigator; and Ed Kramer, a convicted child molester and co-founder of Dragon Con—an annual computer gaming, fantasy and science fiction convention—also have pleaded not guilty.

According to pleadings filed in the case, Ward had a technician install a device on the judge's computer that monitors network activity. Kramer was given the task of monitoring and analyzing the data collected by the device, and allegedly "discovered clear signs" that someone was accessing Schrader's computer outside regular business hours without the judge's consent.

But before Schrader could take the information to law enforcement, Porter signed a warrant for Kramer's arrest on an unrelated charge, according to one motion filed in the case. A search of Kramer's electronic equipment, including his computer and cell phone, led to the GBI investigation that soon included Schrader, that motion said.

Last month, the state Judicial Qualifications Commission, which oversees judicial discipline, suspended Schrader until the charges are resolved or her judicial term expires. In doing so, the judicial watchdog agency said Schrader is accused of "allegedly enabled a convicted child molester to have access to court data." Kramer is on probation stemming from his 2013 no contest plea to three counts of child molestation. 

Schrader stopped hearing criminal cases last March after Porter called in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation over a possible breach of the court computer system and soon sought the judge's recusal in hundreds of cases his office is prosecuting. Porter has denied hacking the judges computer, and later recused from the investigation.  Robert Smith, general counsel for the Prosecuting Attorneys' Council of Georgia, is prosecuting the case.