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

The judge overseeing the criminal trial of Gwinnett County Superior Court Judge Kathryn Schrader declared a mistrial Tuesday after the jury said it was deadlocked on at least of one of three counts of felony computer trespass.

Prosecutors said they would retry the case "sooner rather than later."

Schrader stepped out of the courtroom and hugged family and well-wishers before disappearing into a conference room without speaking to a knot of waiting reporters.

"We proved she didn't do it, and we'll prove it again," said Schrader's lead attorney, B,J. Bernstein, who tried the case with co-counsel Andy Travis of ChancoSchiffer.

The decision by Judge David Sweat to declare a mistrial came after a weeklong trial and shortly after he had instructed the jury to keep deliberating in response to a note indicating they were not able to reach a consensus on all the counts.

After a little more than an hour, the foreperson told Sweat there was little likelihood of further movement.

"Everybody has made up their minds," she said.

The state was represented by Prosecuting Attorneys' Council of Georgia general counsel Robert Smith Jr. and staff attorney John Regan after Gwinnett County district attorney Danny Porter's office recused.  

Afterward, they said any decision as to whether Schrader will face the same slate of charges will depend on their discussions with PACGA executive director Pete Skandalakis.  

The case began in January 2019, when Schrader began having a series of inexplicable problems with her court computer: Copies of reports from the Georgia Criminal Information Center and the Gwinnett County Police Department appeared on her chambers printer; her private photos and a family member's passport information turned up on someone else's computer; and a former assistant DA who was appointed to a judgeship in late 2018 was discovered to be a "permissive user" of her system, among other anomalies.

County IT staffers repeatedly fixed problems as they emerged but were unable to stop them or explain their origins to Schrader's satisfaction.

Concerned that someone was hacking into her computer and—given the materials she was seeing—suspicious that it may be someone in the Porter's office, she contacted private investigator T.J Ward for advice.

Ward said he had an associate named "Eliot" who was a forensic computer expert and gave her his number. Schrader spoke to Eliot, who said he could install a device on her computer that would allow him to see what traffic was occurring between her computer and the court system's network server.

Eliot had another Ward contractor, former Forsyth County deputy Frank Karic, come to Schrader's chambers and install the device, known as a Shark Tap. He came back two more times to service the device and tablet that ran the supporting software to transmit the intercepted data to Eliot.

Later that month, Porter's office was investigating a report that convicted child molester and registered sex offender Ed Kramer had photographed a child at a doctor's office. Executing a search warrant at Kramer's Duluth home, investigators found a file on Kramer's computer with Schrader's name on it, containing data and information from her computer.

Porter went to see Schrader to tell what they'd found and offered his office's assistance in determining whether someone was hacking into her computer, but she declined. 

An alarmed Schrader called Ward, who said Kramer did some work for him but declared himself ignorant of how her information ended up on Kramer's computer and said she should remove the Shark Tap and tablet.

Ward did not tell her that Kramer and Eliot were one and the same. 

In early March Porter's office was examining Kramer's cellphone and discovered a recorded conversation and several texts between Schrader and Kramer. 

Porter called in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and subsequently asked a judge to bar her from hearing any cases his office handled, which was granted. By then, Schrader had voluntarily stopped hearing criminal cases. 

Last September, a grand jury indicted Schrader, Ward, Kramer and Karic on three counts each of felony computer trespass. Schrader was subsequently suspended from the bench by the state Judicial Qualifications Commission.  

All three co-defendants ended up making deals with prosecutors: Ward was allowed to plead guilty to misdemeanor criminal trespass and was sentenced to 24 months of probation and allowed to keep his private investigator's license.

Karic entered a pretrial diversion program that will see him emerge with a clean record if he doesn't violate the terms of his supervision, which includes reporting to a judge monthly and submitting to drug testing.

And shortly before trial began, Kramer entered an Alford plea—stating he agreed the state had enough information to convict him—in return for a guarantee that the state will recommend 10 years of probation for the computer trespass charges. He is still facing further court action for the alleged recording incident in a doctor's waiting room.