Frank Karic, one of four people implicated in Gwinnett County’s ongoing courthouse hacking saga, has agreed to testify when his co-defendants go to trial next month.
Karic is accused of helping install a monitoring device on the computer of Superior Court Judge Kathryn Schrader, who is also a defendant in the complex case. In exchange for truthful testimony at a trial scheduled to start Feb. 10, Karic will enter a pre-trial diversion program and have the computer trespass charges filed against him wiped away, his attorney said.
“He’s always been willing to tell the truth and that’s all he’s going to do,” Stuart Mones said Monday.
Karic, Schrader, private investigator TJ Ward and DragonCon co-founder Ed Kramer were all indicted in connection with the case last fall.
According to prosecutors, Schrader — who has been suspended by the Judicial Qualifications Commission pending the outcome of the case — hired Ward early last year to investigate fears that someone was trying to hack into her work computer.
(The judge reportedly feared that Gwinnett District Attorney Danny Porter was the would-be hacker, though it has remained unclear why. Porter has denied the allegation, and representatives from the Prosecuting Attorneys Council of Georgia are prosecuting the case instead of Porter’s office.)
Ward tasked Karic with installing a WireShark monitoring device on the judge's computer. Kramer, a registered sex offender with a long history in Gwinnett, was tapped to keep track of the activity.
In addition to co-founding the popular Atlanta sci-fi convention DragonCon, which he is no longer affiliated with, Kramer has worked as a computer forensic analyst.
In September, all four defendants were charged with computer trespass, accused of inappropriately interfering with, removing data from and otherwise “altering” Gwinnett County’s computer network.
Ward pleaded out in November, taking reduced charges of misdemeanor criminal trespass and two years of probation in exchange for his testimony in the case.
With Karic now taking a similar route, Schrader and Kramer are the only defendants now scheduled to stand trial.
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