This is the story of Republican District Attorney Ken Kratz’ sexual misconduct over a domestic violence victim — involving an abuse of power and ultimately resulting today in a subsequent get out of jail free card. The setting: Wisconsin.
A young woman’s boyfriend tried to kill her by beating and strangling her. She went through the trauma of going to the hospital and the police, and dealt with the fact that the man she loved just tried to kill her (an epidemic in this country, by the way). Then she decided to move forward with the charges, because after all, this person tried to take her life and she found that egregious. At this point, hopefully we are losing those who don’t find that egregious.
She turned to the DA, a man by the name of Ken Kratz, as crime victims are supposed to. He is 50 plus years old and married, and she is an attractive 25ish young woman newly single and suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome. Kratz, a Republican, was appointed Calumet County district attorney in 1992. The DA begins sexting her, claiming he is a prize and she is “tall, young, hot nymph.”
He sexted things to her like, “Are u the kind of girl that likes secret contact with an older married elected DA…the riskier the better?” Making offers to her that imply that she would sell herself to him because he is a big shot such as, “Im serious! Im the atty. I have the $350,000 house. I have the 6-figure career. You may be the tall, young, hot nymph, but I am the prize!” And trying to entice her with offers that if she is hot enough, he might leave his wife, “I would not expect you to be the other woman. I would want you to be so hot and treat me so well that you’d be THE woman! R U that good?”
He even acknowledged her inherent vulnerability and attempted to shame her with it, implying that she was refusing him because of her “low self-esteem” in texts like this one, “Hey … Miss Communication, what’s the sticking point? Your low self-esteem and you [your?] fear you can’t play in my big sandbox? Or???” The woman responded with such answers as “dono” and “no.”
He sent 30 such text messages. She complained to her local police, saying she was worried that if she spurned Kratz’s advances, he would not prosecute her ex-boyfriend. They turned it over to the Wisconsin DOJ. Kratz, who admitted to sending the sexts, tried to keep the messages secret, as revealed by emails he sent to the DOJ. The DOJ finally issued a statement that Kratz hadn’t done anything wrong.
The Office of Lawyer Regulation and the Crime Victims’ Rights Board both refused to take action after learning about the text messages. Turns out, the perpetrator is on that crime victims’ board. Kratz was, in fact, the Chairman of the state’s Crime Victims Rights Board until he resigned under pressure from the Wisconsin Department of Justice.
The Democratic Party of Wisconsin called for an independent investigation of how Wisconsin Atty. Gen. J.B. Van Hollen and the Department of Justice handled the case, noting that Van Hollen was up for re-election.
The Post Crescent reported:
In a conference call with reporters, Democratic Party spokesman Graeme Zielinski suggested Van Hollen, the state’s ranking Republican elected official, tried to protect Kratz.
“Why did he wait for a year for this to come out in the public?” Zielinski asked, pointing out that Kratz was an early supporter of Van Hollen when he first won election as attorney general in 2006.
The Republicans countered that they had won a felony conviction against the boyfriend and forced Kratz to resign from Crime Victims Rights Board.
So the victim sued. According to MSNBC, her suit alleged:
The lawsuit says Kratz knew that Van Groll, as an abuse victim, would be “unusually sensitive” to sexual requests from an authority figure. It also notes that, under Wisconsin law, witnesses of crimes have the right to be protected from threats and harm for cooperating with prosecutors. The suit claimed her constitutional rights to due process and equal protection were violated.
“Kratz caused (Van Groll) a high degree of humiliation, anxiety and distress and a substantial loss of her and her family’s privacy that would not have occurred but for his conduct,” according to the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Milwaukee…
Another domestic violence victim came forward saying that Kratz told that woman “he could have a dominatrix from Chicago with whom he was familiar train the victim/witness to be more submissive to his advances,” the lawsuit says.
In fact, 15 women filed similar charges.
Furthermore, Van Groll’s complaint says Kratz — by virtue of his position and training — knew domestic violence victims were particularly vulnerable to harm from unwelcome sexual advances.
Former Gov. Jim Doyle was attempting to remove Kratz from office for cause. But it’s a new world in Wisconsin. Today, Kratz found out that he won’t face charges over the sexting:
The Wisconsin State Journal reports:
A former prosecutor accused of sending racy text messages to a domestic abuse victim is not going to face criminal charges, the Wisconsin Justice Department announced Monday.
State investigators looked into allegations from more than a dozen women that former Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz committed sexual assault and misconduct in office, the department said.
“His conduct appears to fit the connotation of ‘misconduct’ and demonstrates inappropriate behavior but does not satisfy the elements required to prosecute,” wrote Assistant Attorney General Tom Storm, who led the investigation.
Kratz ultimately resigned after much push-back, but his attorney says that they are “investigating whether people lied to hurt Kratz.”
In the end, we have the boyfriend, Shannon R. Konitzer, who pleaded no contest to felony strangulation and suffocation, and was found guilty. He was sentenced to a year in jail with six months of the sentence stayed. And then we have the man who was supposed to be protecting the victim and prosecuting the attempted murder using his position to attempt to gain sexual favors from the victim. The man who tried to take her life got 6 months in jail and the man who took advantage of another man’s abuse of her resigned from his job but faces no charges. His attorneys are also busy smearing the women who made the charges publicly.
According to the most recent statistics, three women a day are murdered by an intimate partner in America, land of the “free.” Domestic violence is a tool utilized to gain or maintain power and control over an intimate partner. It’s hard to see the prosecutor’s decision to further abuse this young woman by using his power and authority over her in an attempt to manipulate her into having sex with him as anything other than a deliberate, warlike strategy to go in for the kill while the victim was down. And he was charged with upholding the law and protecting the victim.
It’s unconscionable especially that this man, having access to her medical and police files and thus having seen the photos of the bruises around her neck, would and could still deliberately attempt to manipulate her already suffering sense of self into having sex with him. This young woman had just suffered a brutal attack perpetrated by the man who was supposed to love her. Her trust in the world was already damaged when Ken Kratz took advantage of her. Somehow Kratz came away from all of this feeling sorry for himself, feeling wronged by women who wanted to “hurt him.”
If we don’t hold people in positions of authority like a prosecutor to a higher standard, then we have no right to expect justice for society’s vulnerable. An authority figure who pounces on a young, vulnerable woman, assuming her personhood and body is his to toy with, knowing that she is already shattered emotionally, has no place holding an office of public trust and it’s a shame that those charged with upholding the integrity of the justice system in Wisconsin appear to be condoning his egregious behavior.
Unfortunately, stories like these go untold every day in this country.
Related posts:
This kind of behavior only frightens domestic violence victims more, out of turning to the authorities for assistance. Were Kratz’s inappropriate behaviors towards the woman merely unethical or are there federal or local laws that one could plausibly say were broken? (If what he did was not actually illegal, it should be). Did he break laws, and if so, which ones?
It would seem to me that he violated an essential trust and should be disbarred, but I am not familiar with the Wisconsin bar. I have a problem with the way it was swept under the rug at first, and he was allowed to continue at work for quite a while, when he had admitted to doing this and there was proof of it. Sadly, this kind of thing happens every day to women in this country. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve read or seen the same thing go down. And this is why it takes such courage to come forward with any allegations of sexual abuse. Society and those in power never want to hear about the ugly things or things that would cause them to have to restructure. My heart goes out to this young lady, but I’m also very impressed with her bravery and belief in herself.
Iwill look up what entity controls the “bar cards” in Wisconsin. In Tennessee, it is the Board of Professional Responsibility. This PIG would be censured and most likely disbarred in Tennessee.
Ethics does not seem to be his strong suit, but most lawyers are busted for ethics violations and this certainly is a violation of attorney-client relations. Just because the PIG is the DA, the victim is still the client and this is not ethical in any way, shape, form or fashion, EVER.
Thanks, let me know please. That was my understanding. I don’t want to assume politics are playing a part here, but reportedly Kratz was an early supporter of Van Hollen (AG) and you know how Republicans tend to cover for each other rather than call out their own ethics violators. Well, they run them for President and VP, so I guess it’s not a problem for them.
that I wonder how any other people can get arrested for sexting? after this how can anyone be guilty of it?
this guy abused the power of his office. How could he not be prosecuted? I mean for gods sake this means Richard Nixon is innocent. This guy deserves a punishment equal to the punishment that he gave out and that includes incredible mental stress.
This is sick.
can you imagine how this young woman and her family felt about this and the amount of stress they had? I wonder if Kratz can know what it feels like to see your daughter go through that.
Well if this is what we can expect from these Slimy pieces of GOP crap its time our President Says “Hell No” to compromise ! Wisconsin like many other Fundamentalist nests of warped and slimy politicians and so called Christian’s is on the verge of a Blow back that will shake this Country! And it’s Shame on every Mainstream Christian,Moderate,Independent and Progressive that keeps quiet in the face of this vile attack on our Rights! And to coin one of Palins favorite sound bites “Do you like your Freedom ?” They are spitting on you and I along with The Constitution of the United States and getting away with it.The same Constitution they claim to revere (And so often misquote)This isn’t going to resolve itself ,no Miracles are going to change them ! Only “We the People” can answer this intrusion and it has to start now !
The underlying fundamental of all fundamentalists is keeping women down. It’s an inherent part of what is termed social-dominance orientation (SDO) and right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), but it serves a useful purpose, besides: people accept being declassed better if there is someone designated whom they are entitled to oppress and dominate, and they are much less likely to strike back upward. This is why hard times see a spike in racism and misogyny, culminating in lynching and gynocide; this is why hierarchical power structures encourage this sort of thing, enacting them into law as soon as they can. Until they do, they enforce them de facto by failing to offer protection to the disfavored classes.
There may be grounds for these women to seek federal relief. It is the kind of litigation that must be very well founded in law and in fact, because an adverse decision could have a chilling effect on future plaintiffs. But that is the point: there will be future plaintiffs, whether simply as the result of a societal trend or one of deliberate disenfranchisement. It is time to prepare.
And I am totally in agreement with you TomandLou!
Truly disgusting.
I think a civil class action suit is in order. If they can’t get this guy in jail, those 15 or so women need to bankrupt him. Maybe that will communicate to some of these creeps.
This is shocking they wont even disbar him for doing this to vulnerable women
Yes, after all, he does have that $350,000.00 house — but then, maybe his wife is taking that when she leaves him, if she hasn’t already. They’d better file fast.
I wonder if the judge who ends up presiding over her lawsuit will also end up being a friend of Katz, because obviously the whole WI justice department is protecting this slimy piece of garbage. I’m sure it will be no problem for them to get this case placed in front of a ‘sympathetic’ judge appointed by Walker.
If that ends up being the case, at least I hope his wife leaves him and takes everything in the divorce.
Another republican behaving…well, like a republican. I’ll bet he’s a real “Christian” as well.
[...] More → Blog this! Bookmark on Delicious Recommend on Facebook Share on Linkedin Share via MySpace Share with Stumblers Share on technorati Tweet about it Subscribe to the comments on this post Tell a friend 2011/03/29 at 5:02pm | This entry was posted in Politics, Via Digg and tagged politicususa.com, victim, wisconsin, woman. Bookmark the permalink. ← Microsoft Hunting Rustock Controllers — Krebs on Security [...]
[...] Sleazy Sexting Republican DA Won’t Face Criminal Charges [...]
This article makes me sick. Then I remember that this is where our country has sunk to and it just makes me want to cry. My heart goes out to the women harassed by this man and hope they find peace.
What really makes me sad is that this is now what passes for main stream entertainment. Just turn on the Jersey Shore and watch domestic abuse unfold in front of you as Ronnie throws Sammi’s bed off a balcony.
Sarah, thank you for another great article.