Predatory D.A., Part III

(Trigger Warning for attempts to coerce sex from a position of authority, and prosecutorial misconduct toward a victim of domestic violence)

Wisconsin's Calumet County D. A. Ken Kratz, whose attempts to coerce women who came to him for professional help (including a victim of domestic violence whose assailant he was prosecuting) into sexual relationships were detailed here and here, has resigned, faced with a hearing on removing him from office which was called by the governor after receiving formal complaints about Kratz from citizens.

In a statement, Kratz said that he had lost the confidence of those he represented

primarily due to personal issues which have now affected my professional career.

No.

Following the announcement of the hearing, Kratz was said to be receiving "inpatient therapy". Unfortunately, this therapy seems to have been unsuccessful in pulling Kratz' head out of his ass. These were not "personal issues"; they were explicitly professional issues in which Kratz attempted to use his powerful position to re-victimize a woman who was dependent on him to prosecute the man who tried to kill her, and in which he attempted to use that same professional position to gain sexual advantage from several other women.

For Kratz, though, the central tragedy here is still that his "professional career" has been adversely affected. The Wisconsin Office of Lawyer Regulation, before Kratz's behavior became a public scandal, had told the woman whose ex-boyfriend Kratz was charged with prosecuting that the series of 30 text messages he had sent her after meeting with her about the case, in which he repeatedly suggested she become sexually involved with him, leading her to fear that if she did not give him what he wanted he might drop the prosecution of her attacker, "did not appear to involve possible professional misconduct".

Following publication of the story, however, both the governor and state representative Terese Berceau questioned that judgment. We can only hope that Kratz's resignation does not end the consideration of his abuse of his position.

H/T Liss