GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. (CBS46) — A Gwinnett County superior court judge has been indicted along with three others, including a registered sex offender, accused of computer trespassing.
Kathryn Schrader was booked into the Gwinnett County Jail on Wednesday and was released on bond later that day.
According to investigators, the judge believed Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter was monitoring her emails, so she hired private investigators T.J. Ward and Frank Karic. Ward gained national fame when he investigated the 2005 disappearance of Alabama teenager Natalie Holloway who went missing while on a high school graduation trip in Aruba.
Authorities say Ward hired the co-founder of DragonCon, Ed Kramer, to do the actual hacking of Gwinnett’s computer system to see if someone was spying on the judge. Kramer was placed on Georgia’s sex offender registry after a 2013 plea bargain involving the alleged molestation of three boys.
Investigators found about the hacking when they got a warrant to search Kramer’s computer following his February arrest for allegedly taking pictures of a seven-year-old boy in a Lawerenceville doctor’s office.
Porter, the district attorney, has recused himself from the case. He denies hacking into Judge Schrader’s computer.
Schrader has been removed from overseeing criminal cases, but she is still handling civil cases.
On September 18, Schrader, Ward, Kramer and Karic were indicted for computer trespass.
So get this: A judge, a well-known private investigator, and the co-founder of #DragonCon (who’s a registered sex offender) have all been indicted. They’re accused of hacking into Gwinnett County’s computer system. Join us now for details on @cbs46. https://t.co/34Om9rcWpO
— Rebekka Schramm (@SchrammCBS46) September 19, 2019
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Copyright 2019 WGCL-TV (Meredith Corporation). All rights reserved.
