The co-founder of Dragon Con who was confined to his house last week for a child molestation conviction is asking for some leniency to his punishment.
Ed Kramer’s attorney filed an emergency request Tuesday to allow the 52-year-old Kramer to notify his electronic ankle bracelet monitoring service when he wants to leave his home.
That is a stretch from the sentence a Gwinnett County judge handed down last week – that county authorities had to be notified in advance and approve any medical, legal, religious or grocery shopping trips Kramer takes away from his home.
“It is requested that a procedure be established whereby the monitoring service … be notified when the defendant’s (sic) is to participate in the specified permitted activity,” the request states.
But Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter said such leeway shouldn’t be allowed.
“It is a basic tenant of incarceration that convicts do not have the ability to come and go as they please,” Porter said in a reply to the request.
Kramer faced 20 years in prison for multiple charges of child molestation and aggravated child molestation after three men came forward accusing him of abuse when they were adolescents.
As part of a plea agreement reached last week, he was ordered to serve the remaining 34 months of a five-year sentence under house arrest, then be on probation and be listed as a sex offender for life.
Kramer also was ordered to pay $100,000 to each of his victims and stay away from anyone 16 years old and younger.
During the run-up to the trial, he was brought into court hearings in a wheelchair and needed oxygen to breath because of injuries sustained while in prison.
Via phone last week, Porter told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that care for Kramer cost Gwinnett between $200,000 and $300,000, and the deal meant taxpayers would no longer pay for Kramer’s care.
The prosecutor also questioned the validity of Kramer’s ailment.
“I suspect that once he’s home, he’ll experience a miraculous recovery,” Porter said.
A judge will make a final determination on Kramer’s request.
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