Edward Eliot Kramer is an American editor and convicted child molester. Kramer lives in Duluth, Georgia and was a co-founder and part-owner of the Dragon*Con media convention. Kramer has also edited several works in the genres of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Before pleading guilty in 2013 to three counts of child molestation, Kramer was the subject of a long-running legal battle that began with his initial arrest in August 2000.
Kramer is the editor of the anthologiesDark Love and Grails ; by Neil Gaiman ; The Crow, by James O'Barr ; Free Space ; Forbidden Acts ; Elric: Tales of the White Wolf and Pawn of Chaos: Tales of the Eternal Champion ; Dante's Disciples, Tombs, and the Dark Destiny trilogy ; and Strange Attraction: Turns of the Midnight Carnival Wheel. He has also worked for over a decade as a music critic and photojournalist.
Dragon Con and other events
In 1987, he co-founded Dragon*Con, a convention dedicated to science fiction, fantasy, comics, gaming, and the popular arts. He has not been involved with Dragon Con planning or activities since 2000, but still owned 34% of the business until Kramer's relationship with the convention was ended in July 2013 in a cash-out merger. He has also chaired the 1990 Atlanta Origins convention, the 1992 GeorgiaWorld Fantasy Convention, and the Nebula Awards Weekend, and both the Atlanta World Horror Convention, and the North American Science Fiction Convention in 1995. In 1999, he chaired the Atlanta World Horror Convention.
Child sex offense arrests and convictions
2000 arrest
Kramer was arrested on August 25, 2000 following an investigation spurred by an anonymous tip, and charged with molesting three teenage boys. The investigation revealed that he had previously been accused of molestation in 1997 before the alleged victim recanted. Before Kramer was arrested, he had a reputation for inappropriate relationships. According to Atlanta Magazine, he "was constantly surrounded by young boys". Kramer's first attempt to serve his pre-trial detention in house arrest lasted only a week due to a reported visit by a teenage boy. After that, he was remanded to jail. Kramer subsequently suffered a spinal injury while in jail. In response to that injury, and Kramer's assertion of declining health, Judge Debra Turner allowed him to go back to pre-trial detention in house arrest in January 2001. In 2007, former congressman Bob Barr said, "There is an overwhelming sense of injustice that pervades all of what has happened to Petitioner Appellant Edward Kramer." Protests to "Free Ed" gained the support of science fiction writersHarlan Ellison, Anne McCaffrey, Robert J Sawyer and J. Neil Schulman. Conversely, Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter said in September 2010 that Kramer had "done nothing but delay and blame everyone else but himself", agreeing with an assessment that the Georgia Court of Appeals gave in September 2007: "The record strongly indicates that Kramer either sought or knowingly acquiesced in the great majority of the delay and did not want a speedy trial." Kramer and his lawyers disputed this, stating that he had serious health issues that prevented him from sitting through a long trial. In 2008, after seven years of pre-trial detention in house arrest, and numerous delays in his court proceedings, Kramer's travel ban was lifted.
2011 arrest
In September 2011, Kramer was arrested after Connecticut police found him in a motel room, unsupervised, with a 14-year-old boy despite being banned from contacting anyone under 18. The felony "risk of injury to a child" was added to the list of charges for which he was to stand trial. In September 2012, Kramer was being held at the MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution, a maximum security facility in Suffield, Connecticut, before his extradition to Georgia in January 2013. On April 26, 2013, he was denied the chance to post bail, as the presiding judge concluded based on past behavior that he was likely to break the conditions of his bond.
Guilty plea to 2000 charges
On December 2, 2013, more than thirteen years after his 2000 arrest, Kramer entered an Alford plea to one charge for each of the three victims, just before his trial was scheduled to start. In 2014, he sought to reverse the 2013 plea, with his lawyer claiming Kramer was forced into the plea bargain through prosecutorial misconduct. The Georgia State Attorney's Office ordered the recusal of both the district attorney and the Gwinnett District Attorney's Office from the case, since they were also witnesses in the action. All Gwinnett County Judges voluntarily recused themselves as well.
2019 arrest and indictment
On February 27, 2019, Kramer was arrested by officers from the Lawrenceville Police Department for allegedly taking photos of a young boy at a doctor's office. On September 18, 2019, Kramer, along with Gwinnett County Judge Kathryn Schrader, was indicted after being allowed improper access to the county’s secure computer network. Kramer was later charged with possession of child pornography as a result of that investigation. Judge Schrader was subsequently suspended from the bench, pending the outcome of a trial.
Plea and trial
On February 3, 2020, Kramer entered an Alford plea of guilty to charges related to trespass into the secure computer network. On February 18, 2020 Schrader's court case resulted in a mistrial.
