DragonCon co-founder Edward Kramer is fighting extradition to Georgia, where he faces multiple child molestation charges.
Kramer, a 50-year-old Duluth resident, was arrested Sept. 15 in Milford, Conn., on a felony charge of risk of injury to a child after he was caught staying in a motel room with a 14-year-old boy. Kramer was allegedly claiming to be the guardian of the boy, who had a role in a film being shot in Milford.
Kramer public defender Ken Bunker contested Georgia's bid to have him returned to the state at an extradition hearing on Thursday.
A new hearing is slated for Nov. 23.
"He has every right to contest the process," Bunker said. "Most people waive their right to contest extradition. Waiving means they are giving up their rights. All he is doing is not [giving up his rights]."
If Kramer wins, then Georgia's efforts to bring him back will have failed, said Kevin Russo, a prosecutor for the State of Connecticut.
"If he loses, and they almost always do, that process will be over and Georgia authorities will be notified to extradite him," Russo said.
Kramer could be sentenced to a maximum of 10 years in prison on the Connecticut charge alone if he is convicted. His association with the child was a violation of the conditions of his bond in Georgia, where he is accused of molesting three teenage boys and could face up to 60 years in prison.
Kramer, a science fiction author, was first charged 11 years ago in Gwinnett with molesting two boys who were 13 and 15 when he began dating their mother. A third boy came forward with similar allegations a few years later.
But Kramer's lawyers forestalled a trial indefinitely by presenting evidence that a degenerative spinal condition made him physically incompetent to stand trial. Kramer was under house arrest for most of the years following his arrest until 2008, when a judge ruled that he could travel as long as he reported his whereabouts on a weekly basis to the district attorney's office.
Conditions of his bond also stipulated that he have no unsupervised contact with anyone under age 16.
Kramer resigned from DragonCon, a popular sci-fi, fantasy and gaming convention held in Atlanta, in 2000.
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