I wonder what Bob Barr has to say about Ed Kramer’s health these days.
Ed Kramer, Pre-Miraculous Recovery/New Child-Endangerment Charges
As reported here, back in 2009 Barr, the former Libertarian Presidential Candidate, helped his client Ed Kramer avoid trial — helped him avoid justice — in multiple felony charges for child molestation and aggravated child molestation. Barr and fellow defense attorney Edwin Marger managed to convince a judge in Georgia that Ed Kramer simply could not stand trial because it would be too painful for him to show up in a courtroom because of some obscure, obviously pretend spinal illness.
You know, kind of like fantasy role-playing.
Kramer had first been arrested in 2000 — yes, 2000 — on charges of molesting three boys. The DragonCon founder had managed to “game” the system for nine years. Then Bob Barr took a little break from running for President and representing Baby Doc Duvalier to score a highly unusual deal for his DragonCon client: house arrest on the grounds of his extreme-yet-vague “disability.” Not a plea, mind you: just no trial.
In other words, the three young victims were denied justice. Their rights as citizens were literally stripped from them via legal wizardry performed by someone who claims to represent individual liberties.
Well, some people’s liberties.
Of course, Ed Kramer immediately pushed the envelope and demanded release from house arrest. Of course, the judge granted it, along with the right to travel to another state and to “check in” by telephone. Of course, Kramer didn’t even bother to meet those requirements. Of course, nobody in our ever-so-vigilant court system bothered to follow up. Of course, the victims, and the molestation charges, simply got lost in the shuffle.
Ed Kramer, Pre-Pretend Spinal Cord Disease
Everyone knows how this genre fiction ends: of course, Kramer was arrested in Connecticut this week after being found in a motel room with a 14-year old boy:
A 50-year-old man who is already facing multiple charges of child molestation, was arraigned in Superior Court on a risk of injury to a minor charge Thursday after authorities said they found him staying in a hotel room with a 14-year-old boy earlier this week.
Kramer, a science fiction author and co-founder of the popular sci-fi convention DragonCon, was first charged with multiple charges of child molestation and aggravated child molestation by investigators in Gwinnett County, Ga in 2000. The district attorney’s office contacted police in Milford [Connecticut] about the pending charges after receiving a tip Kramer may be in the Connecticut area.
Gwinnett County [Georgia] District Attorney Danny Porter said he was contacted this week by a woman whose daughter is filming a movie in the Hartford-area. Crews started to worry about the way Kramer was acting around the 14-year-old boy, who was hired as an actor in the movie, Porter said.
Kramer claimed he was the child’s guardian, according to police.
On Tuesday, Porter said a crew member contacted Milford police after went to the boy’s hotel room and became concerned when the boy opened the door in a towel. Kramer was allegedly sitting on a bed inside the room, Porter said.
Congratulations, Congressman Barr. Your client seems to have completely overcome his pesky back problem.
Among other gut-wrenching questions, this question remains: why didn’t anyone with the “movie crew” do something about a molestation suspect sharing a motel room with a 14-year old boy? One person did eventually come forward, but what about the rest of them? Surely they knew Kramer — he’s uniquely famous in SciFi circles. What’s the matter with these people? Why didn’t they choose a better role for themselves — Avenger of the Innocent, Protector of the Voiceless, anything but More People who are so Emotionally Arrested They Can’t Bring Themselves to Act to Save a Child?
In my alternative fantasy universe, Convicted-Con, the act of denying victims their day in court would be taken as seriously as the act of denying rights to defendants. In my alternative fantasy universe, law professor bloggers and other activist types would work themselves up in a frenzy whenever some raped child got conned out of their rights by powerful politicians and uncaring pseudo-guardians of the law.
Star Trek Court, Where Defendants Face Justice, Unlike Real Court
In my alternative fantasy universe, when a lawyer gets his sex offender client off on claims of disability, and the disability turns out to be fake, there would be consequences for the lawyer:
Kramer’s attorneys [had] succeed in delaying his trial by arguing his health [was] too frail for lengthy courtroom sessions. One attorney described Kramer to the Daily Post last year as an “anatomy lesson” in decrepitude, suffering from ailments that include a problematic back, weak lungs and narcolepsy. He was said to get around on a motorized scooter and rely on oxygen tanks.
Last year, a judge agreed to abbreviated trial sessions and specialized seating for Kramer, but the trial was again continued and has hung in limbo since. . . Kramer was staying in the motel with the boy. . . Officers descended on the Super 8 and found Kramer alone with the minor, the police report states.
What’s more, [Danny] Porter said at least one witness is claiming to have proof Kramer’s not as sick as he made out.
“They saw him hiking in a rural area — no breathing apparatus, no wheelchair, no cane,” Porter said.
Are we actually supposed to believe that Bob Barr and his partner, Edwin Marger, knew nothing about Ed Kramer’s real physical condition when they claimed he was too sick to attend court in 2009, or that he had basically fled what little court-ordered control they had managed to wrangle for him under extremely questionable circumstances? Well, here’s some clues:
Ed Kramer sporting a Barr ’08 button
Here’s Ed Kramer in either 2007 or 2008. He claimed he was too sick to stand trial for molestation, but he looks like he was having a really good time campaigning for his lawyer, Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr. If anyone knows more about this photo, please contact me.
Ed Kramer at the 2008 DragonCon
Here’s Ed Kramer hanging out at DragonCon when he was supposed to be housebound and in such serious pain from a “spinal injury” that he couldn’t stay awake for trial. Hundreds of people saw him hanging out at a hotel in downtown Atlanta after midnight, chilling with some guy in latex shorts carrying a bongo drum. What, they couldn’t pick up a phone when they saw the following story in the newspaper a few months later? You know . . . acting to protect kids from getting raped, like their favorite superhero might do?
Edward Kramer told Gwinnett County Superior Court Judge Karen Beyers he was uncertain he could stay awake and alert enough to assist in his own defense. A spinal injury makes it difficult to sit, stand or breathe, and he is chronic pain, he said. “I understand your diseases are degenerative,” the judge told Kramer. “I do not believe your ability [to stand trial] is going to improve.” . . . The judge suggested a trial schedule with three breaks a day ranging from 30 to 90 minutes. Beyers also tried to accommodate Kramer by offering to set up a room outside the courtroom for him to lie down in during the breaks and providing an orthopedic chair for him in court.
But he wasn’t too sick to party with female Klingons until the inter-galactical cows came home. Shame on Bob Barr for using his influence to set this up. Really, shame on him.
And double shame on his partner, Ed Marger, who classily had this to say about his client’s most recent arrest in a motel room with a young child found wearing nothing but a towel:
I don’t know if this was a 14-year-old child or a 41-year-old midget.
Nice. What a great way to say: “I’m sorry for playing sleazy games with the lives of children and degrading rape victims in the newspaper while also insulting short people and homosexuals.”
Ed Marger and His Carefully Staged Pelts
Here’s a picture of Marger, pseudo-cornpone, et. al. That depressed-looking thing sitting on his desk is a taxidermied groundhog: his other moldy client, “Baby” Doc Duvalier, must have been busy that day.
There are a thousand different freak shows in the big city. Or as Dashiell Hammett used to say, well, I can’t remember what he said. But the gist of it is this: grey people in grey cities with grey outlooks produce grey moral results. It takes a village not to notice the guy in the wizard outfit and long black gloves slipping away with the little kid who should have been tucked away safely in bed instead of hovering in a grungy convention hotel lobby looking for someone to look up to.
And don’t ever, ever expect a defense attorney to do the right thing.
~~~
Local reporter Scott Henry keeps up on the Kramer case Here and Here.
The disability was very real….at the time. And a lawyer has the responsibility of defending his client – guilty or innocent. But Kramer has manipulated the system long enough, proven untrustworthy, and it’s time to face the music.
The disability may have been real, or not. But if he was able to party, he was able to appear in court. His lawyers abetted him in lying, and even though they can do a lot of things, that’s crossing an ethical line. Defending him, innocent or guilty? Fine. But gaming the system to avoid a trial? Come on.
The thing is that whatever Kramer’s defenders have to say about the whole situation in Conneticut, the man broke the law. He knew the conditions of his bond and proceeded to violated it. After “suffering house arrest” for all those years, you would think that the guy would have been smarter and NOT pushed his luck.
The hubris is strong in this one.
I can’t imagine many crimes worse than abuse of a child, whether the abuse is sexual, physical, verbal or emotional. The pain it causes hurts so many people, some not yet born.
If I ever see someone enticing a child, the perpetrator (most are men) is very likely to have a very bad day. I would try very hard to ensure that he would.
These people are disgusting in the extreme.
I knew Ed in 1990 & 92. Was a part of Dragon Con. This is not surprising. I felt his penchant for young boys bordered on bizarre but not quite “there.”
I was media liaison For Dragon con in 92 and 93… Ed Liked boys.
I was the media liaison at Dragon Con in 92 and 93. The guy was a perv.
Anon — I hope you are in touch with the prosecutors.
Hello, I check your blogs on a regular basis. Your writing style is awesome, keep up the good work!
Thanks! i planto start blogging again soon.
I’m shocked at the one-sidedness of this page. Seems like it was written by people who are acting merely on the emotional response that was specifically elicited from such an allegation.
I’ve done a LOT of research on this whole situation, and I’ve read a LOT of things about how people who have known him (parents and children alike) have nothing but praises for the guy.
Personally, I don’t know the guy myself, but I don’t think it takes even a high school diploma to see that there’s a LOT of creepy things going on, and I’m NOT talking about Mr. Kramer himself. I’m talking more specifically about a court system that was allowed to drag out this whole thing for so long, when it is THEIR responsibilty to ensure a fair and speedy trial to any accused. Which they have FAILED to do since 2000, when this whole charade began.
In your….”blog”…..you conveniently left out the fact that his silent partners (read, providers of funds for HIS idea back in 1987) coincidentally sought to have him removed from an event that HIS imagination dreamt up but couldn’t afford to fund alone, so they could profit from his being removed.
In 2012 alone, DragonCon yielded $50 million dollars in a single weekend, so obviously, they didn’t want to split the profits with him anymore, for an idea they didn’t really believe in, but now that it’s making big money, they sure were quick to file a petition with the civil courts for his failure to maintain company business, knowing that he had been falsely imprisoned since 2000.
I mean, does it REALLY take a rocket scientist to see what the REAL motivation was behind these sudden molestation allegations?
Does it also take a doctorate to figure out that prison guards abused their power and physically abused Mr. Kramer for perceived wrongful behavior (the unproven allegations of child molestation) which led to his newfound medical complications?
If you already don’t know how inmates in prison are treated by fellow inmates for perceived criminal activity with children, then you’re living in a self righteous dream world where you probably believe that no harm could possibly ever come to any inmates, at any time.
I even remember someone accusing Mr. Kramer of using his profits from DragonCon to provide a legal defense for himself, as if it were some crime to do whatever he wants with his share of the profits. Since when was that a crime? His share of the profits are HIS money, and he has the right to do with it, whatever he wants, regardless of what other people think.
Shame on people for assuming his guilt, and yet preaching to their children the right to be seen as innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
And yeah, I’m fully aware of the three ring circus that calls themselves a court of law in a “free” society, provides plenty of “evidence” of his “delay tactics” and not a single shred of evidence to show how they themselves, have delayed this process. Which, it should be noted, typically only happens when someone else is pulling the strings…like, perhaps, the people who wanted Mr. Kramer removed from society for an extended period of time so they could claim that he was unable to maintain a business that was making record profits (for a 3 day weekend) so they could have the legal right to have him declared unfit to participate/manage/profit from said venture…which, by the way, HE created.
I have no problem advertising my name here, unlike all of the other posters, who want to hide behind pseudonyms, because they’re too ashamed to voice their opinions that they already know are contradictory to what this country is SUPPOSED to stand for. It’s also very convenient that you all are refusing to post your names so that your credibility can’t be challenged…have you something to hide?
I know a LOT of people who “like little boys”…they hold all kinds of positions of “trust”…little league coaches (baseball, football, whatever). It’s been my opinion that they ought to have a lot more respect than they do. Personally, I can’t stand being around children, generally speaking, because I don’t have the patience to put up with the brats that get raised in today’s imbalanced society that says it should be doing one thing with it’s mouth, and then proves it’s idealogical failures with their actions.
I’d be interested to hear from the “victims” of this situation, seeing as how they are at least 26 yrs old now, no longer considered minors. Where is their indignant outcries for “justice”? Why are they still unnamed and silent?
Why does nobody find it too convenient that police “arrived” at the hotel in Connecticut, pretty much right after the mother who dropped the boy off left, but not before Mr. Kramer took a shower and was about to get dressed? Why is none of that information available?
I spent a career in the military, and a few years in “law enforcement” (which I have come to realize doesn’t exist in this country, it’s merely nothing but a bunch of bullies who couldn’t get work elsewhere and enjoy getting paid to impose their will on others with a serious lack of insight/knowledge of the actual law) and I have to tell you, I am NOT impressed with the farce this whole thing has become.
I’ve NEVER heard of anyone being incarcerated for over 10 years, and still hasn’t had any trial. Now there’s supposed to be yet another “hearing” on August 26th? Wait a minute, how many “hearings” does an accused need, before they get their trial by jury? I was taught, you get ONE hearing, to determine the authenticity of any complaint(s), and then there’s the jury selection, and then the trial. What ever happened to that whole process?
Why are none of these issues making anyone else curious as to why they’re happening? Why has it not occurred to anyone else that perhaps Mr. Kramer was being targeted by his well to do partners, in a conspiracty to oust him for their own profitable ends?
Now, I’m going to let you know right now, I AM being nice, and I AM being tolerant of the ignorance I’ve witnessed in this country, and of the emotional responses I’ve seen from people who just want to jump on the bandwagon for a cause they don’t know the REAL reasons behind, “but it seems like a good cause, to get rid of a child molester!”
If people REALLY want to impress others, perhaps they should try using some reasoning, instead of letting their emotions take charge of their brains, and start asking the same questions I’ve asked here. You might not like what you find, but better to find the truth, than to merely accuse out of emotional indignation without knowing the true facts of the case.
But then, I bet you all believe that three buildings in NYC collapsed because a plane hit two of them. Or even better, that the third building (which I bet a lot of you don’t even know about) collapsed sympathetically because it was sad for the loss of the two tower structures.
Wake up folks. You’ve been led down a primrose path, and there’s nothing but executioners at the end. And NONE of us will be exempt from their wrath.
Oh, grow the fuck up, Rob.
The guy was caught with his victims.
You should start questioning your belief systems, buddy, until the next pedophile you excuse because you’re watching conspiracy theorists comes to rape your nine-year old.
Because you’re an idiot.