A Gwinnett County judge on Wednesday explained why he recused himself from deciding whether the child molestation conviction of a founder of DragonCon should be dismissed.
Superior Court Judge Warren Davis, the fourth judge to step aside, said his staff attorney Jennifer Taylor had been been too close to the case against Edward Eliot Kramer when she was a prosecutor for District Attorney Danny Porter.
Kramer has accused Porter of improperly colluding with the Superior Court Judge Karen Beyers, the trial judge who took his plea, to re-open his case when it had been effectively closed in 2009 after a hearing on issues surrounding Kramer’s health.
Taylor never handled Kramer’s prosecution as an assistant district attorney but she has enough inside knowledge of the case that Davis said it was wise for him to step aside.
Beyers effectively gave Kramer the authority to decide when he was healthy enough to go to trial, argues Kramer's lawyer Stephen Reba in a court filing in October to set aside the plea.
Porter disputed Reba’s interpretation of the 2009 order but recused himself from handling the legal challenge in court because he is a witness.
Reba filed court papers demanding all Gwinnett judges recuse themselves. Beyers ruled against the demand but since then four judges — a quarter of the Gwinnett bench— including Beyers have stepped aside.
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