UNDATED (WSAU) The former Calumet County prosecutor who resigned after sending racy text messages to a domestic abuse victim will not face criminal charges. The state Justice Department said today that Ken Kratz’s behavior was inappropriate – but it did not satisfy the elements needed to win a criminal conviction.
Assistant attorney general Tom Storm led an investigation into whether Kratz committed sexual assault or misconduct-in-public-office. Fourteen women complained about inappropriate encounters with Kratz, after Stephanie Van Groll went to the police about his suggestive text messages. That was a few months before the case went public last summer. By then, the Justice Department and the state’s Office of Lawyer Regulation had considered into disciplining Kratz. Neither did, but both later re-opened their probes after the allegations were made public. Former Governor Jim Doyle’s administration was planning to hold a hearing on whether to force Kratz out-of-office when the D-A resigned last October.
His lawyer, Robert Bellin, says he’s pleased with today’s decision. And he’s trying to determine if people lied so they could hurt Kratz. He became internationally-known as a prosecutor when he sent Steven Avery to prison for murder, after Avery spent 18 years in prison for a rape he didn’t commit. Kratz also made the tabloids for prosecuting four women who lured a man to a motel, and then glued his sex organ to his stomach for cheating on his wife. All four women arranged plea bargains which kept them out of jail.
